Broken Speaker
by CalliopeDucky
Summary: Min Yoongi is stressed out. Park Jimin is stressed out. And now here they are, in a coffee shop, alone. A fidgety Yoongi and an overly happy Jimin...
1. Favors

**Disclaimer: i do not own Yoongi or any of the other characters in this fic**

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Chapter 1

Yoongi pushed the building door open hard with his hip rather than his hand because he was a little too busy to do so, both hands full with his satchel as he attempted to shove his notebook inside. It was quite the struggle and he wasn't really sure if he was going to win this war or lose it, but judging by the fact the book was mostly certainly not going inside it seemed like a defeat. He couldn't believe it, that he was getting into a tussle with a book and a bag of such a momentous proportion.

"C'mon, seriously," he muttered as he stepped through the doorway, shuffling out the way just to make sure that he wasn't blocking the way for other students. "You fit in there this morning so why the fuck don't you fit in there no- ah!"

Yoongi managed to shove the notebook inside again, the fit snug, and he actually let his breath out in a sigh of relief. As he secured the flap back down he glanced up to see a small grouping of students leaving and going down the building steps, notebooks or tablets hugged against chests because they had been smart and hadn't brought a satchel filled with shit with them to class. Well, it wasn't like he had done it on purpose. His fingers slipped along the metal clasp and so he looked down to secure it, chin brushing against the padded ear covers of his headphones as he did. He slipped the clasp into the fastener and heard a nice little clicking sound as the satchel bag closed.

"Thank fuck," he said as he glanced across the campus for a moment. He saw a dozen or so students moving around at this hour but not many, for most would likely be in their classes still or even enjoying their free weekend but not him. No, the only reason he was stepping out of the media department at this early Saturday afternoon hour was because their lecturer had dismissed them off to do more work on their contextual studies. That meant that he still had work to do, he was just granted the freedom to not do so in the photography lab with the rest of the students and his lecturer breathing down his neck.

The current early spring weather was rather pleasant in the early afternoon, just a slight breeze disturbing his black hair but not chilling his cheeks like it had been just a couple of weeks ago. Soon the spring would be in full swing, mild warmth settling in that would just increase in degrees until the summer came around and made it sweltering hot. He was not looking forward to that, to sitting in one of the leather seats in the music lab with the computer on blasting warm air at him...but at least there was air-conditioning inside. He might just survive the summer at this rate. He was on his way down the front steps when he felt his phone vibrating in his jeans pocket and so Yoongi pulled it free, awkwardly shrugging his satchel up more comfortably onto his shoulder as he did. A quick glance at the screen showed that he had a message from his friend and he slid his thumb across to quickly unlock the device and read the full message.

 _Seokseok : U free right now? Kinda need u_

Yoongi stopped at the bottom of the steps, staring at the screen rather dumbly. What did that mean exactly? When Hoseok said that he needed him it could apply to a great many things and he would be here all day just trying to figure out what the message meant. He wasn't exactly certain but he typed a reply with his thumb, telling him that he was currently free for maybe an hour. He thought that he could spare that amount before he needed to get to his music room so he could update his files. He waited for a minute, waiting to see if he would reply and Hoseok did so, quick and to the point.

 _Seokseok_ : _Performance hall, technical issues, be a true friend yeah? :)_

Yoongi sighed as he called him, lifting his phone to his ear so that he could listen to the dial tone. He only had to listen to two such sounds before his friend answered the call, a static burst sounding down the line until he heard his voice saying "hey?"

"The fuck does 'technical issues' mean?" Yoongi asked without hesitation, hearing his friend snorting at rather brusque words. Not even a hello, Hoseok knew him well enough at this point to expect anything else.

"It means major issues with the sound system that's completely fucked up rehearsals," Hoseok explained, also deciding to be straight to the point to save trouble. " I know you finished your class a couple of minutes ago so you're not busy and-"

"I've gotta go to the music room and update files," Yoongi spoke over him in a contradictory manner, "Y'know I only have Sundays free and I've still got a bunch of shit to do today, like work on my final contextual study so I can finish that fucking assignment and-"

"And you have Sunday to do that," his friend interrupted expertly, catching him by surprise with his sharp tongue. "So there's nothing stopping you from stopping by for a few minutes to just fix this problem, yeah? "

"Hoseok, ain't there like a whole month until performance night?" he asked as he scuffed his boot on the ground and reached up to start tugging at his headphone cable. He snagged the length of coated wire between his fingers, loosely wrapping it around in a fidgety manner.

"Roughly, but there's still rehearsal nights to go through the whole thing," his friend argued. "So we need to start getting used to the stage or...something."

It was clear that Hoseok didn't really have the most valid reason behind wanting him to go to the performance hall to fix the faulty sound system, but he had an idea about what might just be up.

"...Which one of you started messing with the sound system, huh?" Yoongi asked as he stopped playing with his headphone cable. At the question Hoseok staunchly denied that it was him but he didn't claim that no one had touched it. That meant that one of the other students had. "Just call a staff member or something; they'll fix it for you."

"We don't want to contact anyone in case they start chewing on our asses over it," Hoseok said, and Yoongi rolled his eyes across the grounds with a heavy sigh. "Maybe Jungkook might have messed something up trying to fix it before, and if we actually get a staff member to check it out they'll be pissed that we messed with it."

"Hoseok, how old are you again?'

"Old enough to drink but still too young to handle being yelled at without crying," his friend retorted, making him snort involuntary laughter as he did. Yoongi was trying to act annoyed right now, and laughing at his witty remarks wasn't going to get that point across. "Look, you'll probably fix it in like five minutes, OK? And then I owe you a massive favour, I'll forever be in your debt. "

"Still living up to the Seokseok title I see?" he joked as he looked up and tracked a group of students way across campus. They were all wearing black clothing and he realised that they had probably just come from the performance hall. "Gimme a minute-"

Hoseok let out a rather shrill sound at this, forcing him to pull the phone away from his ear with a flinch. "Gimme a minute and don't touch the fucking system!"

There were several buildings on the campus grounds that stretched across the grounds, from the department of performance to the department of media. But there were other buildings too, ones that contained practice rooms for arts students and labs for the more technical subjects like photography, applied music and visual arts. Yoongi often had to go between most of the buildings over the duration of the week, spending five days mostly in the music rooms and lab and one day a week in the media room. As a result he knew the layout of the university off by heart, and during his sophomore year he would be able to guide freshmen around with ease should they require assistance. So he just fixed his satchel back up onto his shoulder and started walking across the path in the direction of the performance hall, sighing heavily under his breath as he did.

Hoseok had been rather set on his major, going straight for dance rather than dabbling between subjects, and Yoongi wished that he had been able to make his mind up too. Even Seokjin had been adamant about enrolling on his acting major, but at least Namjoon had went down the same route as him and had went for a major in applied music and a minor in creative writing. He could always rely on his old friend to have his back, even when that meant that they were both juggling two subjects and more often than not stressed out of their goddamn minds. The curse of indecisiveness. That was why Yoongi was spending his Saturday rushing from department to department to try and ensure that he had everything he needed to spend the rest of the day and most of his Sunday working away on compositions and an assignment for his contextual studies.

Oh god, he literally couldn't wait for the spring break to hurry up and happen just so he could sleep in on his first Sunday in months.

Yoongi walked across the main path to cross the campus, heading in the direction of the performance hall that was close to the entrance gates for convenience. The building was a rather large rectangular building made of brick with no windows and he had actually never gotten much further inside than the small entrance area attached to the front whilst waiting for his friend. When he reached the door he shoved it open and stepped inside to see that Hoseok was waiting for him, leaning against one of the walls with his arms folded across his thin chest. He was dressed pretty much like all of the dance students dressed, head to toe in black: black loose sweatshirt, fitted legging-style bottoms and dance pumps; the ones with the flexible arches and soft soles that Yoongi thought looked incredibly uncomfortable though he didn't know why.

"You actually showed up," his friend remarked, lifting his eyebrows so that large eyes widened considerably and a stray lock of black hair that his white Puma sweatband hadn't brushed back fully shifted.

"Since when've I ever left you hanging?" Yoongi asked in surprise, letting go of the door so that it closed behind him with a soft thudding sound.

"You asshole, I've never done that before ever."

"I can name one example right now, and I have at least a dozen more."

"Name it."

"That double date that one time, back in high school," Hoseok replied without missing a beat, showcasing his rather uncanny habit of memorising shit to use against people. Yoongi briefly wondered what he had against Namjoon before pushing the thought aside. "You left me and two girls hanging for an entire night, you wouldn't answer your phone and-"

"Hey, I told you I didn't wanna do it," he argued. "I had no interest in her sister, man."

"Should have set you up with her brother," his friend stated with a slow head shake. Yoongi could only grin at the joke as he fixed his satchel, the strap rubbing against his deep blue denim shirt. It was a pretty good one, he had to give him that.

"Y'know," he muttered as he eyed the doors that led into the hall. "Just 'cos the break's coming up in a few weeks that don't mean that I've got enough free time to fuck around like this."

"And yet you're here right now," Hoseok remarked as he cocked his head to look at him, lips lifting up at the corners. "So what does that say about you, huh?"

"It says that I'm a fucking pushover," he retorted, hearing his friend snort under his breath. "And also a great friend, so put that on my tombstone when you work me to death and have to bury me."

"You're too much, Min Yoongi," Hoseok said with a smirk. "You would think I asked you to write a dissertation or something, when all I asked was for a single favour."

"Yeah, yeah." He lifted a hand and waved his words off, blowing air out of the corner of his mouth and knocking a lock of hair up onto the air as he did. It settled back down again a second later but he was much too lazy to fix it.

"You had lunch yet?" Hoseok asked as he stopped leaning on the wall, shoving his hand into his sweatshirt front pockets as he did. Yoongi shook his head at the question as he sidestepped away from the door for him. "I'm gonna run the store, you want me to get you something? It's on the house; there might still be dosiraks left."

"Sure," Yoongi said with a nod as he moved to get to the door, turning his head to look over his shoulder at his friend. "If not, grab me kimbap or whatever."

Hoseok gave him an 'OK' sign, thumb and forefinger curled up, and then he stepped out of the entrance area and the door thudded shut behind him. He studied the spot he had been occupying for a few seconds and then he turned back to push the double doors open.


	2. Center Stage

Chapter 2

Yoongi had never actually been inside the performing arts centre on campus before because he had had no need to. When he entered he saw that the main section was a massive hall. The walls and flooring were smooth and light maple wood, and the stage was set to the left, most of the middle of the room filled with padded chairs. The deep red cushions were pulled up, currently not in use, and he saw at least two hundred seats inside, maybe more. He couldn't count exactly so it was just a rough estimate. Yoongi stopped to run his eyes over the stage, seeing that it was currently empty. It was a decent sized elevated podium with curtains set either side that could be drawn, and there looked to be trap doors too from what he could see. After studying this he shifted his attention back to the interior on a whole and after a few seconds he turned his head to locate exactly what he was looking for. The audio booth was set on the opposite wall to the stage, high up behind a glass window with a nice discreet door that housed a staircase that would lead up to the booth.

Yoongi could see that there was someone up there, visible through the glass window. All that he could see was a lot of black: black hair, black hat, upper body clothing in black, and whoever was up there looked to be spinning around in a chair over and over. He didn't recognise his face but that was of no surprise to him because Yoongi only knew one dance student and that was Hoseok, much like how he only knew one acting student: Seokjin. He wondered if he was the so-called 'Jungkook' that Hoseok had said had been messing around with the system trying to fix it. If so, he was going to get an earful off him for doing so.

He crossed the hall in the direction of the other door, walking along the aisles that separated the sections of seating and finding that there were occasional elevated sections so that the seats near the back were higher so everyone would get a clear look at the stage. That was pretty smart, he had to admit. When he got to the door he grabbed the bar handle, tugging down and pulling it open to see a rather narrow and dim set of stairs, and he let his breath out in a heavy sigh. If he broke his ankle then Hoseok was so going to get sued. Yoongi went up the stairs a quick pace, just wanting to get it over with as fast as possible. They rounded ever so slightly like a stairwell so that when he reached the top and pushed the other door open he was once again facing the stage.

The sound of the door swinging open made the young man stop spinning in his chair, coming to a rather slow stop until he was looking right at him. The first thing that Yoongi noticed was that he had large eyes, though that could have been his curiosity making them look so large. He had a prominent nose and rather small mouth, and in his ears there were currently two black plugs. They weren't particularly large but they were rounded and unmissable, and Yoongi dragged his eyes away from his ears to look at his face again.

"Uh…" the young man murmured, narrowing those large eyes of his as he did. When he opened his mouth Yoongi saw that he had buck teeth, not too noticeable but rather only slight. "Who are you again?"

"Hoseok's friend," he replied as the booth door shut behind him. "He might've said my name: Yoongi? Wanted me to check out the system?"

"Oh… oh." He sat upright at this, back almost ramrod straight.

"Awesome!" He shoved his chair away from the sound system to clear it for him and so Yoongi grabbed another chair that had been left to the side, dragging it right up to the system so that he could sit down in it. The leather creaked under his weight, dry and worn, and he almost sank into it. "We need all the help we can get."

"How're the rehearsals going?" Yoongi asked as he forced himself to sit up in the chair. No wonder the young man had been having so much fun spinning in the goddamn thing. It seemed like the right to do to start a light conversation with him right now, even when he didn't particularly want to.

"Rehearsals are going great," he said sarcastically as he span in the chair, the mechanism making an annoying sound as he did. Yoongi detected something off about his accent, something that revealed that he wasn't from Seoul but perhaps Busan. He would need to hear him talk some more before he figured it out however.

"So, uh, the fuck is everyone? Hoseok was acting like there was a bunch of students counting on this for rehearsal, so where are they?"

"Everyone went off to rehearse in practice rooms," he explained, reaching up to scratch at the back of his head. His fingers rubbed against his beanie, making a rather funny rustling sound as he did. "But, uh, we still need to fix this problem. Can't just ignore it or else the performance night will be fucked."

"Are you Jungkook?"

"Uhuh, that's me," Jungkook said with a nod. Yes, he was most certainly from Busan. "Hoseok told you my name?"

"Yeah, he said that you were messing around with the system," Yoongi replied, noting that the young man stiffened up at his words. He looked like he might just be regretting playing around now, even though Yoongi actually wasn't that bothered. "What'd you do, huh?"

"See there was, uh, this kinda crackly feedback sound," Jungkook explained as he started scratching at his beanie hat again. "I thought it might be the bass, that it was too high and it was messing with the sound so I tried lowering it but nothing happened. The crackling sounds still there even when I mess around with the equalisers so I dunno what's going on."

"That's all you did? Touched the equalisers?"

"Yes, that's not a bad thing, right?"

"Nah it's fine, kid," Yoongi muttered as he eyed the system in front of him, seeing that the various slide switches were in rather…unconventional positions on the board. Well, whatever, he would fix that soon enough as soon as he figured out what was wrong. "Hoseok had me thinking you'd went at it with a hammer and chewed on the wires; touching the equalisers is fine don't worry." Jungkook sighed in relief beside him, safe from his possible wrath. The other student didn't even know him, never mind his wrath, and Yoongi found it rather hilarious that he already wanted to avoid angering him.

Maybe it was his empty dead eyes or the bags from one too many three hour nights that made Jungkook think he was a little scary. Either that, or Hoseok had put the spooks up him after he had played with the system.

"'K so," Yoongi shifted in the chair, "I'm gonna need to play some music for a couple of seconds." He eyed the system before reaching over to try balancing out the equalisers. He pressed his fingers down onto the switches, quickly altering them and boosting the bass, and then he twisted a dial to turn the music on. It started off rather low and so he carried on twisting the dial to increase the volume until the opening bar started playing. He felt like he recognised it but he didn't know where from, a rather repetitive acoustic guitar that sounded good to his ears. It was when the rather sweet-toned female vocalist started singing in English that the problem started to appear.

Yoongi could hear exactly what it was, that strange and rather irritating crackling sound that was coming from the system. It wasn't something that could be ignored easily because it almost drowned out the music and distorted her voice, making his ears protest until he twisted the dial hard again. As the hall plunged into silence he could sense that Jungkook was looking at him from the corner of his periphery, eyes wide with interest as he waited for him to say something to break the quiet.

"You know what it is?"

"I think that it's one of the speakers and not the system," Yoongi explained as he reached up to start fiddling with his headphone cable again. "That crackling sound, it ain't feedback. It's something wrong with a speaker, likely a loose circuit wire causing it to cut out. Thing is, we gotta find out which one it is outta all of the ones here before it can get fixed."

"How many are there?" Jungkook asked, as if he had more knowledge about the hall than him.

"Uh, dunno the exact amount but there's focus points," Yoongi explained. "I saw two mounted either side of the booth when I stepped inside a minute ago, a few running along the length of the aisles. The level of volume, it's gotta be a big one, or else it wouldn't be that detectable. They weren't big enough, so I think it could be a stage speaker."

At this they both glanced out of the window, eyeing up the rather considerable floor speakers that were mounted at the bottom of the stage. Yes, Yoongi thought that that was the most likely source of the problem.

"Do me a favour, kid," he said as he turned back to the system. "Go down to the stage and listen for me, try and see if you can figure out if that's where the problem's coming from."

"Uh…hang on a sec," Jungkook muttered as he got out of his seat and walked away from the sound system. Yoongi turned his head to watch him go, opening the door to step out of the booth, and then he turned back to the system. But after a second or two he detected movement down by the stage and so he lifted his gaze to look through the window again.

Jungkook had told him that the other students had left to go to one of the several practice studio rooms and yet there was one down there stepping up onto the stage: a young man. There was a bottle of water in his hand so he shifted to place it by the far corner of the stage out of the way, and then he moved to get closer to the centre. Yoongi furrowed his brow as he shifted forward in his seat, looking down at the stage more clearly through the window. Now that he was in the centre and standing upright he could get a better look at him.

The student didn't look particularly tall at all, might just have been his height or maybe shorter, and he had a rather small frame. But even with his small frame Yoongi could see that he was well-built, a muscular side to his slimness. He might have been wearing a very loose tee but all that he needed to see were his legs, clad in the same style of fitted leggings he expected to see on a ballerino. His thighs were rather thick with muscle and Yoongi couldn't help but stare as he shifted to get into a position. It actually took him a moment to look up and study his face and Yoongi felt rather embarrassed by this fact, cheeks heating up even though there was no one present to catch him staring. He couldn't see his face clearly but he saw wonderfully tanned skin and black hair that matched his dance clothes.

The young man didn't seem to care that there was no music playing right now because he was much too busy getting into a starting position so that he could start rehearsing. Only when he moved his legs to lightly cock one knee and stretch the other forward in a point, did Yoongi realise that he was barefoot. That was very interesting, he had never seen Hoseok dancing barefoot save for when he was drunk or crashing in his and Namjoon's shared accommodation room. Yoongi saw that he was holding the position for a moment, no doubt playing his track piece over in his head as he did, and then he started dancing. Jungkook finally cut down the aisle to get to the stage and then he turned back to him, waving his hand as he looked up at the booth and started shouting something. The booth blocked most of it out but he got the idea and so he started twisting the dial to turn the music on again.


	3. Narrative?

Chapter 3

The other student didn't stop dancing even when the music started blasting out of the speakers, steps not faltering once as he almost bounded across the stage. Yoongi had had a thought about a ballerina when looking at him earlier, and as he watched him dance he was struck by how close his thought had been. The young man didn't so much as dance across the stage, so much as float. But underneath the rather soft and light steps and rhythm Yoongi could see strength; strength in the way that his back arched, in the way that his hands moved and his head would roll. There was a hardness underneath the soft, a spiciness to the sweet, and it made his performance much more arresting.

Yoongi watched him dance because he was much more interesting to observe than Jungkook, who was just wandering up and down the front of the stage, head cocked to try and listen for the problem. The dancer looked to be doing a style of dance that Yoongi could only think of as being called contemporary because it was the only word that came to mind. Contemporary what, he wasn't sure, nor was he sure if there was another word needed to describe it. He wasn't a dancer after all, his expertise was most certainly more rooted in music and so he just settled into the chair as comfortably as he could as he watched him dance and waited for Jungkook to figure it out. As he listened to the song it started to progress further, the vocals crackling in that irritating manner that made him wince.

Was this maybe he was supposed to dancing to? He guessed that it worked. It was light and airy, a rather sweet-sounding song even though he couldn't understand what she was singing save for the occasional word here and there. The song itself was easy to read despite this fact, for Yoongi could tell it was a love song purely based on the emotive tone; that much he could understand. Down at the bottom of the stage Jungkook had shifted along the length, head still cocked to listen carefully to the speakers, and on the actual stage the other student had dropped low so that he was almost on the smooth wooden flooring. He had his weight balanced on one wrist behind him, one knee still cocked up as he swept the other out, the side of his foot brushing against the stage. The movement looked like the spreading of a swan's wing, delicate and slow, and he shifted to get on his knees to carry on with the floor section of the routine. Yoongi was struck by how…flexible he was and he tried to recall if Hoseok was that flexible. He didn't think that he was.

Jungkook lifted his arm again, waving to let him know that he could turn it the music off and so Yoongi twisted the dial hard, plunging the hall into silence once more. The other student looked to just have finished his routine at that point, once again holding a position for a few seconds before he loosened his limbs and relaxing. He could see Jungkook talking to him, shifting to place his folded up arms on the now dead speakers, and he didn't have a clue what they were talking about. Presumably either something to do with the speakers or the routine, but Yoongi saw the nameless student lifting his eyes up to look at the booth window after a few seconds. He felt the most pressing urge to lift his hand up and wave at him, even though he didn't know why and he was just about to do so when the dancer beat him to it. He lifted one hand to tinkle his fingers at him in a rather lazy attempt at a wave, so Yoongi lifted his hand and…gave him a thumbs up.

That was kind of lame.

"Great…" Yoongi muttered under his breath as he dropped his eyes to study the sound system. Down by the stage Jungkook finished talking to him and so he turned on his heel and hastily jogged along one of the aisles to get to the booth door. He heard his footsteps lightly thumping on the stairs for a few seconds.

"Yes," Jungkook replied as he stepped back into the booth, "it's coming from one of the speakers by the stage, the right side from what I can tell. What should we do?"

"You'll need to contact reception and report the issue, they should send someone to fix it," Yoongi explained. "I can't mess around with electrics, I'm not licensed and I don't wanna get my ass kicked out for illegally rewiring a speaker. I mean, I do know how to do that but I'm technically not allowed."

"I was gonna say that's cool but then you said that," Jungkook said with a smirk. "Now I know you're a nerd." Yoongi gave him a sidelong glance that was supposed to look stern as he pushed his chair away from the system. "No, that's actually kinda cool actually. I wish I could fix shit like that but I can't, I'd blow myself up."

"Yeah, so stay away from the speakers, kid," Yoongi agreed as he got out of the chair to get to his feet.

"I'm not a kid, I told you my name," Jungkook retorted, but there was a smile at the corners of his lips.

"How old're you, Jungkook?"

"Eighteen" he replied, "my birthday isn't until the summer so-"

"So you're a kid," Yoongi retorted. "I'm twenty and you're a kid, the end."

"Twenty? Are you a sophomore student?"

"Nah, took a year off before enrolling," he muttered as he fixed his bag and glanced through the window. There was no sign of Hoseok at the door and down on the stage the other dancer was still sitting down, legs folded to the side as he drank from his bottle of water. His friend was clearly still on his way back from the store and so he should probably blow and wait for him outside the campus gates. "Uh, Hoseok said he was running the store," Yoongi explained. "He'll probably be back in a few minutes. Make him call, it'll be funny."

"Are you waiting for him? You could wait inside?" Jungkook suggested as he shifted to follow him across the booth with his eyes, leaning back in the padded leather chair. "There's chairs, they're comfy."

"It's OK," he said as he waved his hand back at him, "just make him call to piss him off."

Yoongi heard Jungkook laughing as he made his way down the staircase, carefully treading in the dim so that he didn't miss a step and end up plummeting to the bottom like a clumsy fool. If anyone could he knew that it would be him so it was for the best that he just take his time and save himself a potential injury. When he got to the bottom he cut along the side aisle beside the seating to cross the hall. As he did so he was aware of the fact that the other student was watching him with interest, nothing else in the hall for him to really focus on currently. He felt like he should say something to him, he just didn't know what to say exactly and so he tried to figure something out in the time to took him to cross the hall.

"Uh, that was a great…piece? Routine?" Yoongi said as he slowed drawing closer to the stage so that he could make sure that the dancer would hear him and maybe reply. At this the other man lowered the bottle from his lips, studying him intently until he screwed the cap on and placed it down on the stage in front of his legs. "It was contemporary, right?"

"Yes," he replied as he reached up to fix his loose tee. He had only just noticed that it had slipped down ever so slightly because it was so large on his frame. "It's a blend of this and that, mostly modern infused with ballet."

Yoongi took a quick moment to study his face now that they were close enough to make his features out properly. Up in the booth he had only really seen his tanned skin and rather pointed nose, and so up close he was able to get a good look at the dancer. He had rather thin eyes, mostly as a result of his heavy and somewhat droopy eyelids, but the lower lid was rather rounded in a sweet way. He saw that his nose was indeed pointed, a slight nose that was completely different from his rounded tip, and he also had a rather sharp jaw line too. But despite having these sharp features there was a softness to his rounded cheeks, and more specifically, his full lips. Yoongi had always thought that he wouldn't meet someone with lips to rival Seokjin's, but whereas his friend's lips could sometimes have a rather spoilt look to them the dancer's didn't. Or at least he hadn't seen them look spoilt yet.

He realised that he had been staring at him for several seconds now, which was well above the acceptable amount without looking rude. That meant that he had to say something because he couldn't just walk away without also looking rude.

"Contemporary usually is," Yoongi agreed with a nod, not exactly sure why he had said that when he really had no clue. He knew fuck all about dance save for B-boying and 'the worm' yet here he was, pretending he did to strike up a conversation with the other student. He had been right about the part at least, but he supposed that it was impossible to not notice the leg work for anything else. It was hardly going to be an infusion of break dancing now, was it?

"Oh yes?" At this the young man raised an eyebrow rather alluringly and he realized that he probably thought that he knew about dancing. "So what was the narrative of the routine?"

"The, uh, the narrative?" Yoongi stopped talking to stare at him rather dumbly, seeing a lazy smile on his face as he held his gaze. Contemporary dance could have a narrative? What the fuck…

"What's the narrative?"

"Are you asking me what 'the narrative' means; what it actually is because you don't know; or are you just repeating the question?" the student asked as he cocked his head at him. Despite his questions being pedantic there was no snobbish air coming off him, rather the young man's attitude seemed rather light and friendly.

"What it means, well, I think I know what you mean; like a contextual thing, right?" Yoongi asked as he reached up to start scratching at the back of his head. He was copying Jungkook's annoying habit it would seem. "The narrative of the dance means what it's telling the audience, yeah?"

"Yes," he agreed with a nod. "So, what's the narrative?"


	4. Llamas or Alpacas

Chapter 4

"Love," Yoongi replied without missing a beat, dropping his hand back down to grab hold of his bag strap. At this the dancer started laughing, the sound rather sweet. It made his eyes crinkled up at the corners somewhat, and Yoongi was sure that when he really smiled or laughed then his eyes might just disappear into those sweet folds of skin just like Namjoon's did. What he saw that was a rather infectious smile, bright and somewhat cute because he appeared to have a little snaggle tooth at the front rather than a perfect smile.

Well there was perfection in imperfections; that much Yoongi knew.

"That's too broad," the other student said with a head shake, that same smile still on his face. "Anything can be about love if you try hard enough. So, what kind of love?"

"Dunno what kinda love just yet, but give me a couple more watches and I might get it," Yoongi remarked as he returned the smile, feeling a strange bravado suddenly overcome him because he hadn't fucked up on the question about the narrative. If he were to ask him anything else however he most certainly would so he should probably try and change the topic before he could.

"Oh really?"

"Mmm, romantic, platonic, forbidden, lost; there's a lot of themes going on, gotta figure out which one," Yoongi stated, still feeling that rather strong burst of cocky confidence from a moment ago. What he was even talking about he didn't know but he found himself wishing that he was this smooth and sure when analysing pieces for his photography classes. Why wasn't that shit as easy as this conversation currently was? Was this actually an easy conversation or was he just bullshitting? Yoongi really didn't know at this point.

"Hmm, so you'll have to get back to me, right?" the dancer asked, his tone revealing that he already knew the answer. Just like with Jungkook he could detect something in his voice, another accent that might have been from Busan though he was currently speaking clearly and without dialect.

"Uh huh," Yoongi said as he gave his satchel one last tug to pull it up onto his shoulder, "maybe the answer will come to me in a dream or something?"

At least with his rather lame joke (unlike the thumbs up) he got a soft laugh in response as he crossed the last part of the hall to get to the door. As he pulled one of the double doors open he spared a quick glance back over his shoulder to see that the young man was looking at him, and just like a few minutes ago he lifted his hand and gave him another tinkling wave. Yoongi made sure to return the wave this time rather than do something equally embarrassing like salute.

He ended up waiting outside at the front gates to the campus for several more minutes for his friend. Whilst he waited he sparked a light and smoked on the curb, eyeing the opposite street that was across a wide main road. There was the usual flow of traffic just like always, still a considerable amount even on a Saturday, but there were very few people moving around save for the occasional small grouping of students coming from the café just off campus at the end of the street. Yoongi shifted to settle back against the metal gate, cocking one leg up against it to try and get more comfortable.

When Hoseok finally appeared on the other sidewalk he had a typical white store bag with a slogan printed on it, one that looked to be packed full of things. It took a moment for the lights to change and then he hastily crossed to get to him.

"Hey," Yoongi said around the stick, breathing out a lungful of smoke as he did. His friend tried to keep his distance from the thin cloud, clearly not wanting to breathe any in seen as he had ditched smoking a few months ago before he had ended up as a routine smoker. "You took your time."

"The store owner wouldn't let me go again," his friend remarked as he waved his hand in front of his face to knock the smoke free. "Pretty sure she's got a crush on me." The owner in question must have been in her fifties but she was sweet enough Yoongi thought. At least she didn't judge him when he was on one of his runs for cheap booze and junk food like other store owners often did. "I grabbed one for Namjoonie too," Hoseok explained as he pulled two of the plastic boxes out and held them out to him. "Because I know he wouldn't have eaten either, you're both hopeless. I feel like your mom, always making sure you fucking eat."

"Thanks." Yoongi accepted the plastic boxes and he shoved the dosiraks into his satchel, taking up the last of the possible space as he did. It meant that it was very hard to fasten the clasp again and so he found himself biting down on the stick as he struggled to do so.

"You figure out what was wrong?"

"Uhuh, busted speaker," Yoongi explained as he reached up to pull his cigarette free from his lips and dabbed ash off the end rather hard so that it landed beside his boot. "Sorry, you're gonna need to call someone over it 'cos I'm not allowed to touch the electrics. Remember what happened back in high school, yeah, I don't wanna repeat that."

"Well, at least we know now," Hoseok said before sighing wearily, "and I'm sorry for wasting your time."

"Nah, it was alright," Yoongi disagreed as he took another deep drag on the cigarette and blew it out of the corner of his mouth hard. It was aimed away from Hoseok at least. "Spoke to that Jungkook kid about it, he helped me figure out what speaker - or speakers - need replacing. It wasn't a problem with the sound system at all so you don't need to worry about your asses getting chewed on, and…uh, there was another student present. He was still rehearsing but we didn't disturb him, so it's good."

"Yes, Jimin could probably rehearse through an earthquake," Hoseok muttered with a smile.

So the dancer's name was Jimin?

"Well, I'm relieved you didn't bite my head off after all of that," Hoseok said with a laugh, shoulders lifting and falling as he did. "I thought for sure you were gonna kill me but you seem pretty chill right now."

"Yeah, 'cos I can go back to the apartment and finish my work and then sleep maybe," he retorted crisply. He seemed chill? What did his friend mean by that? Yoongi didn't really feel chill but he supposed that he might come across that way because he hadn't threatened to bury his foot up his ass. "That's my idea of chill."

"If I couldn't see the filter I'd make a joke about what kinda cigarette you're smoking but…" Hoseok smirked at him and that was when he felt something clicking at the back of his mind.

"Oh! Speaking of fun, the break." Yoongi turned his head to look at him, once again dabbing ash off the end of the stick. "Plans?"

"They're doing workshops over the break," Hoseok explained as he shoved his hands into his sweatshirt pockets. "So I volunteered to take part, for elementary school kids, yeah? Get some bonus credits if I keep the volunteer work up all year round and there's a lot of workshops so…"

He grinned at him widely, showing that he was rather pleased with himself. "I won't be doing anything with you in the break, I'm afraid."

"Shit, you too?" Yoongi reached up to fix his hair, the annoying breeze blowing it right into his eyes. "First Seokjin can't do anything 'cos he needs to visit family, and Namjoonie's too busy with his writing piece, and now you too."

"Oh yeah? What was that earlier remark about being busy in the break, hmm?" Hoseok asked as he cocked his head at him, a rather mischievous expression on his face.

"Yeah, I'll be busy getting drunk and stoned and taking photos," Yoongi retorted without missing a beat, making his friend burst out laughing as he did. "What'd you think I'd be doing, huh?"

"Not sure, but it makes total sense that you would do that," Hoseok agreed with a solemn nod. "Anyway, I should head back inside. Jungkook's gonna eat Jimin soon if he doesn't get food and I do need to call over that fucking speaker so, talk to you later yeah?"

"Sure, I gotta blast too," Yoongi said as he stubbed the cigarette out on the metal railing and tossed the but away without care. One day he might just get his sorry ass fined for littering but today was not that day. "Don't blow the Kakao chatroom up with photos of llamas again, OK?"

"I'll just send alpacas instead!" Hoseok retorted as they both headed off in opposite directions; his friend going through the gates and him going down the street to go to the public parking lot where he parked his motorbike every morning that he was in university.

Yoongi located it very easily in the small lot, the bright and glossy red _Royal Enfield Thunderbird Twinspark_ impossible to miss seen as it was the only actual bike in the lot. There were a few cars and one or two scooters but his was usually the only motorbike that would be present every morning and early evening when he entered the lot. Yoongi stopped beside the vehicle, quickly dusting off the seat with one hand whilst he reached into his jeans pocket and pulled the keys free. Yoongi unlocked the seat storage to lift it up and collected his helmet from inside, slipping it onto his head and hastily fastening the buckle so he could climb on. His satchel was as awkward as always but by now he had learnt to get used to the shape and weight of it and so he slipped the strap over his opposite shoulder so it was snug across his body and wouldn't fall off. He slipped the keys in the ignition and twisted hard, pulling the clutch lever out as he twisted the throttle and brought his foot down on gear shifter. He slowly weaved the bike out of the spot and across the lot, stalling at the entrance so that a car could pass before pulling onto the main road and increasing the gears to pick up speed.


	5. Roommate High

Chapter 5

It took him fifteen minutes of riding to get back to the student accommodation block, which was actually one of the closer options that had been available to him and his friend. There were more buildings spread across dozens of blocks in the area and not all of them were SIA, for there were a few other university campuses in the catchment area and a few colleges that did evening classes too. Just like always he had to park his motorbike in a small back lot with more scooters and countess chained up bikes, making sure to lock the seating so his helmet was safe and secure, and then he left to walk along the street and enter the building.

The brick block was six stories high including the ground-floor rooms, stretching across the length of the street so that it was a massive building. Walking the length of the sidewalk it would be hard to guess the number of windows for there seemed to be at least a hundred on one side of the block alone never mind the other side. Yoongi let himself into the block using the door closest to his shared room, scanning his key card with a hard swipe to get inside and walk along the slight ground-floor hallway to get to the elevator. He rode it up to the fourth floor and waited impatiently, rolling back on his heels as he stared at the glowing floor button.

Yoongi thought that it was very lucky that he and his friend had managed to secure a room with a small en-suite bathroom, even if it had meant sharing it for the sake of convenience. He knew that some floors shared bathrooms and the thought was enough to make him shudder as the elevator ascended. He could never do that, and so offering to share with his friend so that he could afford the combined rent on the accommodation was a miracle that they had managed to clinch somehow. It might not be regulation exactly but…who cared? When the elevator stopped and the doors pinged open he quickly crossed the slight hall to get to their room, finding that the door was unlocked and that meant that he didn't need to fumble his keys free so he just pushed the door open to step inside.

The closet and bed was to the right of the room upon entering, a small kitchenette with a microwave and kettle directly to the left. Opposite the door there was the small bathroom, and beside the bed there was a desk. Once upon a time it might have been built with the purpose of holding books but right now it had a computer on it, a sound board in front of the screen and two and a mic wired up to it. Namjoon was currently sitting in the seat in front of the desk, legs stretched over to rest on the bed as he lounged back in the recliner. Yoongi could see that he had been working at one point because there was scrunched up balls of paper all over the floor and sound board, but it looked like his friend had gotten distracted at some point…the distraction being lighting up a joint of course. Yoongi could smell it on the air, that unmistakable tangy scent, and he watched his friend playing with his pencil rather than write. Namjoon's glasses were on the desk rather than on his nose, the squared lenses reflecting sunlight back at his eyes, and his friend looked like he might not have even showered yet for he was still wearing his usual sleeping clothes, a wrinkled polo shirt and a pair of loose sweatpants.

"Are you seriously stoned right now?" Yoongi asked as he removed his boots, hunkering down to do so and feeling his bag hitting against his thigh. Namjoon stopped stunning the nub of his pencil rubber, looking up at him for a moment, and then he told him that he was. As soon as his boots were free he moved over to open the window just beside the desk, trying to air the room out a little so that the stink of the smoke didn't leak into the hallway. "What about that writing piece you have due Wednesday?"

"Working on it," Namjoon explained as he lifted his pencil and waved it at him. It was a miracle it didn't fly free from his fingers and roll across the room. "I needed a little assistance to get my brain going."

"Uh huh, sure you did," Yoongi muttered as he pulled his phone free. He checked his notifications to see a little red glowing circle above the Kakao Talk icon and so he clicked on it cautiously. Fifty alerts on the chat room entitled 'Dumbass Central'.

The fact that he was a member was something that he elected to ignore. He knew what was going to happen when he hit the chat but he couldn't help himself. He should just slide his thumb along and mark the messages as read but there might actually be something in the chat that he needed to see. So with a hesitant heart he pressed his thumb down and loaded the chat. After several seconds of scrolling he realized that his assumptions had been correct.

There was about fifty fucking photographs of llamas on the chat and every single one had been sent by Namjoon.

Yoongi sighed and went to the settings for the chat so that he could clear the cache, annoyed for all of three seconds until he found himself laughing under his breath as he tossed the device onto the end of the bed.

"Huh?"

"Creativity? I bet being stoned really helped you find those pics."

"It was…a strange experience," Namjoon said as he sat upright in the chair and reached up to rub at his eyes. "Nah, I'm good I'm pretty much back down on planet earth and finished with the rough draft now. I just hated this piece, stupid traditional poetry class. Don't need any assistance with the contemporary, or even the English analysis shit, but the traditional part gets to me."

"You're good at poetry, man," Yoongi said as he went back to his satchel and hunkered down to open it, pulling the dosiraks and his books out. He moved to hand his friend one of the boxes and Namjoon accepted it with a look of slight confusion. "Seokseok bought us lunch, also he owes me a favor."

"A favor?" Namjoon asked as he peeled the plastic top off and grabbed a chunk of hamburger meat from one of the sections, popping into his mouth.

"Yeah," Yoongi put his own dosirak down on their bed and moved to pull his legs up onto the mattress, grabbing his books first and foremost. He opened his notebook and placed it aside before opening his textbook and putting it on his thigh. "I kinda did him a favor today and at the same time I did jackshit, but he owes me regardless. There was a technical issue with a sound system but it was a broken speaker in the end."

"How are the rehearsals going?" Namjoon asked him, one of the chunks of portioned rice hovering in front of his mouth.

"Uh, OK I think?" he replied, turning to his own dosirak to peel the plastic free. He hadn't realized just how hungry he actually was until he had seen his friend eating and so he grabbed a portion of rice and cheeked it before adding a chunk of kalbi too. He had to take a moment to chew before replying because his mouth was so full. "Excluding the technical issue I think it was going good, there was a student performing whilst I was working and he looked pretty good so I'll assume rehearsals are going good."

"He looked good?" Namjoon repeated as he put the dosirak down to go over to the kitchenette and hunkered down to pop the mini fridge door open that they had managed to squeeze into a gap beside a set of drawers with some creativity and a lot of gumption.

"By that do you mean he looked good performing or do you mean he just looked good?" Yoongi studied his back as he chewed a mouthful of lettuce and rice, the textbook forgotten on his knee for a moment because he was much too hungry to care.

"…Both," he replied after swallowing. This made his friend laugh softly from across the room, the sound of him pouring something out taking to the air. It was either milk, fruit juice, or iced tea because it most certainly wouldn't be booze this early on a Saturday. That was all that was usually inside the fridge. "What?"

"I know you too well, doing a favor for Hoseok so you could watch another student like some weirdo hiding in the bushes…"

"'K, no, shut up," Yoongi retorted, making his friend laugh even harder.

"Firstly, I didn't even know that he existed until today, I did Seokseok a favor 'cos I'm nice, asshole. Secondly, I wasn't watching him like a creep, OK, I even spoke to him a little about his routine so…yeah."

"About dance?"

"Yeah."

"What, did you have your phone in hand the whole time to search what he was saying?" Namjoon joked, turning around with two small glasses filled with milk. Yoongi wanted to glare at him but it was hard to do so when the joke had been pretty good. "What's his name?"

"Uh, Jimin," Yoongi replied as he accepted a cup. "That's what Hoseok said."

"Don't know him, he's not in applied music obviously, or creative writing." His friend sat back down in the chair, making it creak under his weight. "Might just be a dance major."

"Mmm, maybe," Yoongi took a sip of the milk and then placed the glass down on the edge of the desk.

"You must be tired after chasing him around all morning," Namjoon joked as he grabbed another chunk of food, happily chewing away on a portion of rice.

"Yeah yeah, I've actually been working unlike you, dumbass," he muttered as he turned back to the thick textbook in front of him, flicking through to find the right sticky note tab he had marked for reference.

"Getting stoned to be creative, ha, sure." He had just located the yellow one when he heard his friend mutter something under his breath.

"There's still a joint left, you know?"

Yoongi paused and stared at the sticky note, seeing a random hasty pen scrawl that was hard to decipher. He had probably scrawled it at 7:30am, eyes glued shut and on body on autopilot mode, and so he wasn't at all surprised that it took him several seconds of staring until he could make out the characters. He turned his head to look at his friend and saw that Namjoon was sitting back in the chair comfortably again, notebook on his lap covered in lines and lines of tight and neat characters that showcased that he really had done the assignment whilst stoned. After a moment of study he looked back at his textbook and then his notebook, seeing lines and lines of text that he was going to have to trudge through too.

"Well, I am kinda stressed…"


	6. Honey

Chapter 6

The music was pounding from the speakers loud enough for him to feel it in his chest, causing a skipping sensation that started off unpleasant but he slowly noticed less and less as time went on. Jimin was more than used to it by now but sometimes he wished that he had earplugs just to lower the volume and save his poor eardrums. The music wasn't actually set on a high volume, rather it was reverberating off the sound-proofed walls instead. He could feel the vibrations through the wall that he was leaning back against, the dull and rather constant thump of a bass line that traveled down his spine, and he couldn't help but tap a foot in rhythm with the song. It was a little more upbeat than his song of choice but still rather smooth, as to still be in fitting with the current theme. Much to his friend's annoyance of course, he knew that he much preferred more powerful pieces.

Jungkook was currently going over several variations for his performance, as he was still rather uncertain about it all. Jimin found it rather telling that he had spent time helping other students with their routines but had neglected his own. That probably wasn't a good idea but then again, Hoseok had done the exact same thing too. At least he had been sure to work on his own routine however, but considering how quickly he seemed to absorb steps it was no wonder that he could juggle it all. Jimin wondered what his assignment work looked like however; if that was lacking or whether he was almost done with that. On the floor beside him there was several notebooks and a folder, filled with their combined assignment work. They still needed to set aside time to improve on several pieces before the break, but right now Jungkook was much too busy polishing up to sit down and concentrate on written work.

Jimin studied the pile of notebooks for a moment before looking back up at his friend. He could see him faltering ever so slightly in his routine, his movements a little sluggish here and there. It wasn't too obvious, but to his trained eye he could see that something was up. Jungkook was never sluggish. If anything he might accidentally rush a move or come off too strong when should be softer, but never sluggish. Jimin watched him intently as he started doing floor work, cocking his head to try and get a good view of his face as he did but it was too hard. He was moving much too fast so he really just caught a slight glance of his face, noting his rather contorted features as he got back up again.

Jungkook stopped suddenly in the routine, hunkering down again so that he could drop his head forward. Even from across the small practice room he could see that sweat was dripping from his face to land on the flooring and his shoulders were rising and falling rapidly. Had he gotten up a little too quickly, maybe felt a rush of dizziness? His friend looked like he was going to drop and so Jimin moved to hit the button on the system beside him, switching the music off and plunging the room into silence. He moved to get closer to him, shoes padding softly, and the young man didn't even look at him.

"Hey you OK, Jungkookie?" he asked as he hunkered down beside him. Jungkook actually moved to drop onto his ass onto the flooring because his legs were wobbling like crazy and he couldn't hold himself up. The impact made him grunt in surprise rather than pain and he still kept his head low and forward rather than look at him.

"Just need a breather, I'm fine," Jungkook said with a head shake. His sweat-clumped hair shifted as he did, falling over his brow to hang in his eyes. He didn't even lift his hand to brush it back and so Jimin did so for him. His skin was incredibly hot against his palm as he did, a sign that he was getting overheated as a result of his clothing and the enclosed space. "Honestly, I'm alright so-"

"Come on," Jimin said as he tugged at his hoodie. "Take this off, cool yourself down."

Jungkook struggled to free himself from his hoodie and so he grabbed hold of the lengths to help him tug it off. In the resulting momentary wrestling match he managed to drag him out of it and his friend's white tee lifted up rather high to flash quite a lot of his stomach. Jimin folded the hoodie up and placed it aside whilst Jungkook tugged the wrinkled tee down again. He was still breathing too rapidly for his liking but he thought that Jungkook was past the possible fainting stage now. His friend was never like this, he had very good stamina, and so Jimin knew that something must be up with him.

"You were in such a rush to get here this morning and secure the room," he remarked as he folded his elbows on his knees. "Did you eat any breakfast, mmm?"

"Uh, no," Jungkook replied, clearly thinking that it was rather pointless to lie to him. After all, he had basically just collapsed on him so it made much more sense to just be honest. "I kinda fell asleep for like twenty minutes after getting out the shower so I just skipped it to get here before the room was given away; stupid, I know."

"No, no it's not stupid," Jimin disagreed with a head shake. "But you should have called me, I would have left early to get here first. I'm gonna run the store," he said in a soft voice as Jungkook pulled up the neckline of his tee to try and wipe his sweat free.

"I'll bring back food and coffee, so just stay in the room and don't move until I get back, yes?"

"Uh huh, stay still and deep breaths, right?"

"Sure thing, keep it up and I'll be right back," Jimin said as he squeezed his friend's shoulder again and then straightened up. He stretched his back, curving his spine as he lifted his arms up and relished the gentle tugging at the base of his back. "Don't push yourself too hard, Jungkookie, you won't be able to rehearse hooked up to a drip."

"I know," Jungkook said as he carried on wiping his face dry. Jimin moved to grab his own hoodie, which was folded on top of the sound system. "I won't skip breakfast next time, if I need to rush I'll grab something and bring it with me."

"Good idea," Jimin agreed, looking back over his shoulder one last time as he opened the door and stepped outside. Jungkook was still sitting cross-legged on the floor, head held low as collected himself.

So he closed the door and started walking along the narrow hallway to leave the practice room building. Though each room was sound-proofed a little sound still bled through the doors, meaning that standing in the hallway he could hear a little mix of everything, from booming and sharp hip hop bass lines, to softer and sweeter classical pieces that showcased just how many different students were rehearsing in the building right now. Jimin exited the building and headed off across campus, having quite the walk to do to get to the entrance gates. Well, the weather was pretty nice today so he didn't mind at all. There were very few clouds in the sky and he was pretty sure that the warm streak was just going to repeat for the next couple of days; a nice period of bright skies and few clouds.

Jimin carried his hoodie folded over his arm rather than wear it, the black material a little too heavy to wear currently. He only had it with him so that he could carry his wallet and phone around, his current rehearsal clothing pocket-less. He was halfway across campus when he noticed a rather recognizable flash of bright red out of his periphery and so he lifted his head and glanced over to see Taehyung was currently on his merry way across the path, an actual skip in his step that was to be expected. It seemed that he might just be having a good day today unlike poor Jungkook and so Jimin lifted his hand and called out, waving to get his attention.

Taehyung was studying a major in visual arts, with a preference to move onto fashion design in his later years. Jimin had seen a great many of the visual arts students on campus, either carrying large sketchbooks or even larger portfolios, and he had noticed a certain style seemed to follow most of them around. It was the style that he had once heard Jungkook refer to as 'pretentious' but Taehyung was so very unlike those students in their casual-looking but pricey and stylish looks that they wouldn't dare let a dab of paint get on.

No, his friend was more often than not covered in paint and chalk, ink and dried smudges of clay clinging to his skin. The fact that he had a wonderful habit of wearing loose white pullovers just to ensure that he exited the studio looking like a walking Pollock nightmare just helped emphasize the permanent mess that he seemed to like wearing. Jimin liked to think that Taehyung was blissfully unaware of the fact that he should have probably have went into acting instead. With his face he could easily glide through regardless his talent, but he also knew that his friend was actually pretty good at that too. He could do impersonations and voices, and his ability to pull some of the most unique expressions he had ever seen a human display before was rather uncanny.

At his call Taehyung stopped walking on the path, one leg actually cocked up so that his Plimsoll-clad foot was hovering several inches off the ground, and then he turned his head to look at him too. Then came his own rather enthusiastic wave and his friend hastily cut down the path he was walking along so that they could stop at the base of a blossom tree and bench placed where the various paths converged. Just like always Jimin saw the messed-up pullover and loose black trousers that always cut short above his ankles, and at least today there was a lot of red to match his bright hair. On the neckline of the pullover there was a pair of sunglasses hanging snugly, rounded black lenses set on wiry thin silver frames.

"You leaving already? I thought you and Kookie were booked until the afternoon with work?" Taehyung asked him as he came to a stop under the slight shade that the tree offered. With it not yet being in bloom there was nothing more than thin bars of shadow on the dirt paths from the rather naked branches.

"I'm not leaving, I'm just heading the store. Jungkookie skipped breakfast and almost collapsed so-"

"Oh, honey, is he alright?" the young man asked in concern, shifting his rather heavy-looking tote bag from hand to hand as he did.

"Yes, he's OK," Jimin confirmed with a nod.

"He just pushed himself a little hard is all, everyone's been doing that lately with the next performance night coming up. Couple that with a lot of assignment work and we're all kinda losing it a little. What about you?"

"I don't think I had anything to lose," Taehyung retorted, making him laugh as he did. "Nope, I'm doing OK, I think. C'mon, I'll walk you to the gates." They started walking along the path again, heading past the first half of the campus buildings and in the direction of the rest. "I mean, I'm mostly on top of my shit and today I should hopefully be completely on top."

"You getting involved in any of the workshop stuff?" Jimin asked out of sheer curiosity.

"Yeah, um-" Taehyung paused for a second before dropping to his knee. He saw that his friend was tying up his laces because they had come undone, and Jimin had an inkling that his friend really couldn't do them up well at all considering how often they loosened on him. "I kinda volunteered to make promo posters and stuff for the workshops coming up in the break and, shit, I'm regretting it right about now."

"Why?"

"'Cos I've got about a million ideas and not a single clue how to turn 'em into actual posters," Taehyung explained as he pulled the knot tight and looped the excess around to knot the laces again. "That's what's dragging me down right now but today I'm gonna make a bunch of fake design posters and run 'em by people and get feedback before attempting any digital work. Probably gonna need photos if I can't find any good stock work, or I could make my own if I…"

Jimin was listening to what his friend was saying but Taehyung had a terrible habit of talking very fast and lapsing into dialect in a rather bumbling manner and so it made it hard to track some of his ranting. Instead of watching him tying his pumps up he had decided to look across the campus, and that was when he saw something interesting. The guy from the other day, the one that had diagnosed the busted speaker, was crossing the campus in a rather hasty fashion. He could see that he had quite a lot of stuff on him, a satchel on his shoulder bouncing around and a camera hanging around his neck on a lanyard as he tried to juggle both texting on his phone and shoving things inside the bag. Around his neck there was even a set of padded headphones and for some reason the sight of all of his belongings weighing him down made Jimin smile. He was struggling and yet he was still going, refusing to stop walking just to make the tasks any easier.

Talk about stubborn.

Jimin had thought that he was an applied music student since he had known all about the sound system and speakers, but perhaps not. Or maybe he was doing a joint major or a major and minor degree? He wasn't really sure but he did know that he didn't even know his name.

"Hey, Tae?"

"Huh?"

"Do you know who that student is?" Jimin asked, cocking his head in the other man's direction. He was much too busy to even notice either of them standing on the path.

"Oh him?" Taehyung asked as he straightened up again, tracking the tornado of denim and black hair across the stretch of campus towards the entrance gates. "Yeah, I know him. That's Yoongi."

"Yoongi?" Jimin repeated, watching him finally succeeded in getting his books inside the satchel. He didn't even try and fasten it and rather just turned his full attention to his phone, not looking away from the screen once as he did.

"Yeah, he majors in applied music and minors in photography, I see him around a lot," his friend explained as he reached up to slip his sunglasses off his pullover. "Why?"

"Oh, he's the guy that came to the hall the other day," Jimin explained as the other man took a turn to head towards the gates, back now to them. "The one that helped us figure out what was wrong with the system. Where do you see him?"

"Around the technical labs sometimes," Taehyung explained as he put the sunglasses on and left them on the end of his nose, eyeing him over the round tops. "Digital labs and the music labs are pretty close and sometimes we have to share if they're too busy. He seems cool, I guess?"

"You guess?" Jimin started walking again and so his friend followed after him, tote bag swinging wildly in his grip. "What does that mean?"

"I mean we talks to himself sometimes but don't we all?" Taehyung remarked with a soft shrug. "And maybe he helped me out this one time I kinda fucked a computer up, so that was cool…I really fucked it up. Honestly, honey, it was like five seconds away from smoke coming out the vents."

"Try to not break all of the campus computers please, Tae?"

"So long as you try to not bust all of the speakers too," his friend retorted without missing a beat. They drew closer to the entrance gates after a minute of walking, which was the cue for them to part ways for now. Jimin asked him what he was planning for the day as they stopped just a few feet away from them. "I've gotta work on a few things," Taehyung explained as he lifted up his tote bag, showcasing a plastic file sticking out of it packed with papers and other items so that it was bulking out in parts.

"Got a study room booked so I can spend a couple of hours on my plans and references. I've got too many references, Kahi keeps telling me off."

He let out a sudden laugh as he lifted his bag up, hugging it against his chest to carry it that way instead of by the handle. Jimin saw the rather sheepish smile on his face. "She keeps reminding me that I've gotta use references, not create a scrapbook but it's hard."

"You working on the workshop things too?"

"Yup," Taehyung replied as he rolled back on his heels. "I've got maybe this month to get 'em done so I think I've got enough time. Honestly, Jimjim, I didn't think that art had so much written work," he sighed dramatically, reaching up to brush a fall of red hair off his brow.

When he shoved his sunglasses back up his nose with his middle finger Jimin could see the chipped remains of varnish on his nail, a rather lovely shade of bubblegum pink.

"Show me and Jungkookie the designs," Jimin suggested. "We can always help you narrow the choices down before you show them to anyone."

"Sure thing, honey," Taehyung turned to go and seemed to recall something. "Oh! Also make sure Kookie doesn't make himself sick! Tell him I'll set my mom on him, he'll regret it after the third serving of her soup. You'll find everything in that from fish heads to pig intestines, she doesn't really understand 'less is more'."

"Sounds delicious," Jimin replied with a faüx grimace. "I'll make sure he doesn't, catch you later. Yes?" Taehyung confirmed that he would be free in the afternoon and so they parted ways, his friend heading in the direction of the block of study rooms back across campus and he exiting the gates to leave the university.


	7. Hints

Chapter 7

Jimin spent a moment standing on the curb until the traffic was less packed, and then he darted across the road to enter the convenience store at the end of the opposite street. First, he needed to buy some food and then he could go to the cafe on the other end of the street to pick up two coffees. It was a quick run, or at least he was hoping it would be because he didn't want to leave Jungkook for too long on his own. Despite promising to not move he knew that if he was left alone for too long then he would start rehearsing again, even if it meant risking wearing himself out. Yes, he could very well imagine this happening and so he knew that he had to not dilly-dally. Luckily he knew the store layout pretty well by now, and so after stepping inside he went straight to the third aisle. It was so very easy to get distracted by the dozens of packed shelves and alluring colorful displays that clashed against the white walls and light grey linoleum. Jimin grabbed two tuna and mayonnaise samgak-kimbap from the shelf, awkwardly carrying them in the crook of his elbow so that he could cross the aisle and go to the fridge.

After collecting two cartons of banana milk he went to the counter to pay for the goods, politely talking to the woman on the till as he did because she always made sure to say hello and ask him how the studying was going.

Hyeja owned and ran the campus convenience store, and had been doing so for some time it would seem. Some days or nights students covered for her part-time, particularly near the start of the year before exams got in the way and ate up all of their free time. She was a rather petite middle-aged woman with a head of lightly curled hair, and Jimin always found himself thinking that she looked rather than an aged actress, one that he might just see in a drama playing a mother-in-law. She seemed to lived in loose floral dresses and wore very little makeup save for two patches of light blusher on her cheeks. Jimin quite liked the woman because she was polite and respectful, and maybe a little maternal towards freshmen, which was always a bonus. Considering the fact his own mother was all the way back down in Busan he appreciated the occasional remark about food and laundry, about making sure he made lists so he didn't forget things when he went to the market. Yes, Hyeja was quite the blessing and he knew that his friends liked her too. Even Hoseok, who seemed to have earned her affections more greatly than the rest.

"Your friend, Hoseokie, was here yesterday," Hyeja said as she rang the purchases up. Hoseokie? That was new, and he couldn't wait to see how the other man would react when he told him this particular fact. "He said that it's been very busy for you all, with the break coming up soon."

"Yes, and performance night too," Jimin explained as he slipped his card into the machine to pay. "It's been really busy."

He entered his PIN as she started putting the items in a small plastic bag for him. "But it's all going well, and as soon as the night is over we can all come here and buy lots of soju and make ramyun and celebrate," he suggested with a smile, making her laugh.

"Well, I will be there to watch you all so it wouldn't hurt to open the store for a little while," Hyeja said as he pulled the card free and put it back into his wallet. "I can't wait to see all of your hard work, every year the students just seem to get better and better. There's so much wonderful talent to observe."

Jimin slipped the wallet back into his jacket pocket and reached over to collect the bag from her with thanks. "Make sure to get plenty of rest," Hyeja said as he crossed the store. "You students never seem to sleep."

"I promise I will," he called back over his shoulder as he stepped out of the store and started walking along the street in the direction of the cafe.

The bag was rather light and swung from his grip as he walked much like how Taehyung's tote bag did. He walked at a brisk pace to not delay, not even looking through the window as he passed. When he got to the entrance he pulled the door open and like always the overhead bell rang as he stepped inside, the air warm and fragrant with the scent of coffee and other sweet things. Jimin liked the cafe just as much as he liked the convenience store, but he didn't visit it as often. His days were usually too busy to take a break inside it, and when he had actual assignment work to do it was better to book a study room with Jungkook and Hoseok and do it without any distractions. But regardless of this fact he had popped inside a few times and he liked it a lot. The walls were a deep shade of cream that clashed with the black linoleum flooring, and the counters was a nice length of deep brown untreated wood that gave it a rather rustic feel. Along the window there was a stretch of counter with stools, and there was also a dozen or so small tables inside to the left of the interior.

Jimin could have ordered hot coffee, but considering the fact that Jungkook had gotten overheated he thought that iced was probably a smarter option. So he moved to stand by the counter and ordered two iced lattes. After paying he needed to wait for them to be brewed and so he leaned on one elbow on the high counter and turned his head to look across the interior. He saw a couple of students inside, mostly a group of young women seated around a table that seemed to be working on a project, heads held low and books open over most of the surface. But there, at the very end of the counter, he saw a rather familiar sight and Jimin could only stare at the other man in amusement.

Yoongi was sitting at the counter, legs swinging back and forth, as he hastily jotted something down. His camera was placed beside a large mug of steaming coffee and before he could help himself Jimin moved to cross the cafe floor to get closer to him. The other man didn't even look up at him because he was too busy and only when his shadow fell over him did he finally turn his head to glance in his direction. Yoongi locked gazes with him for a second before looking back at the counter, and then he seemed to figure out who he was and he looked up sharply again. There was a pair of round glasses on his nose, absolutely massive glasses that made his eyes look even more rounded through the lenses, and Jimin could see how he was shifting his gaze pretty much everywhere rather than focus on him.

"Hey," Jimin said because he didn't really know what to say. He had approached him and so he had to strike up the conversation. "I'm not disturbing you, am I?"

"Huh, oh! No, no not disturbing anything," Yoongi muttered as he reached up to pull his glasses free and put them by his camera.

He had been jotting things down on a napkin rather than a piece of paper, the ink having soaked through the thin white cotton, and for some reason that just added to his rather hectic vibes. "I was just jotting something down before I forgot it. You're, uh," he stopped talking for a second and he realized that he had never told him his name that day.

"Jimin," he replied with a soft smile. "I didn't get your name either." That was technically a lie but he didn't need to know that.

"Yoongi," he said as he shifted on the stool ever so slightly. His action was a little fidgety but Jimin couldn't figure out if it was because he was nervous or just uncomfortable. When they had first spoken to one another he had come across fidgety, fingers scratching or fiddling with something whilst he spoke, be it his hair or a bag strap.

"I forgot to say thank you," Jimin said as the other man moved to grab his mug of coffee, lifting it up to take a sip. "You know, for helping out the other day? You didn't have to do that, we should have just reported the problem to reception but you did it anyway even when you were probably busy. The speakers have been replaced now too, so we can actually use the hall properly."

Yoongi made a soft noise at this, to let him know that he was listening. "So that was very kind of you to do so."

"Hoseok's my friend, we've known each other since he moved up to Seoul back in high school," he explained as he put the mug down again on the counter, the porcelain bottom clunking loudly. "I kinda couldn't say no to him." Yoongi's lips lifted at this for a second or two in a rather mischievous way.

"But, uh, I'm glad that you can use the hall now. Means you can work on your routine, though it already looked pretty much perfect to my eyes."

"Speaking of my routine," he said as he glanced back at the counter, seeing that the young woman was almost done making the coffees for him. "Did you figure out the narrative yet?"

"Nah, I still need to watch it a few more times," Yoongi replied, that rather mischievous smile still in place. "I'm leaning towards one of the choices but still not sure yet."

"Then I'll be nice and give you a hint," Jimin said with a soft smile.

"There's a hint in the lyrics of the song, so that should help you figure it out. You can tell me what you think it is next time we see each other, yes?"

"Next…time?" Yoongi asked dumbly, mouth hanging open.

"I owe you a free coffee," he replied as he moved to go back over to the counter and collect the complete orders. Jimin shifted the store bag into the crook of his elbow so that he could grab both of the plastic containers in hand, pushing the cafe door open with his hip so that he could exit the building. As he crossed the street again he glanced through the window to see that Yoongi was staring at him with that same expression. He couldn't wave goodbye considering that his hands were full and the sudden urge to wink at him instead overcame him. Before he could stop himself he did so, a quick and childish wink before he passed the window and was out of his sight.


	8. Guy Advice

Chapter 8

On the brisk walk back to the campus Jimin didn't really think about Yoongi, rather his mind was devoid of thoughts save for some pondering on what he was going to do with Jungkook about their plans for the day. Working on their assignment seemed like the best idea to give his friend time to rest himself but it all depended on whether or not Jungkook would agree to abandon practice for a few hours. The answer seemed like probably not but it was worth a shot, he supposed. It was as he was going through the gates that he briefly thought about what Yoongi had just said to him, about his routine being pretty much perfect.

That was enough to bring a rather pleased smile go his face as he crossed the campus to get to the practice room building. When he got closer he saw a rather expected sight, one that didn't even surprise him at this point. Jungkook was standing outside the building, hoodie back on and phone in one hand, the folder and notebooks hugged against his chest. It looked like he had left the practice room on purpose and that was a good sign, one that meant that he might just have decided to stop practice for the day.

"Hey, you feeling better?"

"I think I'm getting a headache," Jungkook replied as he locked his phone and shoved it into his pocket. "But otherwise, yeah, I feel better now. I thought it'd be better to concentrate on the assignment though, just in case."

"One of the study rooms should be free, wanna go in there?" Jimin suggested before a sudden thought hit him. "Wait, Tae already has one booked. We can crash in there, if you want?"

"If we crash in a room with him we'll never finish the assignment," Jungkook said with a grin as he accepted his coffee from him. "So yeah, sounds like a great plan."

It was rather easy to locate the study room that Taehyung was in, not only because he was unmissable through the glass window with his fire engine red hair but because the sound of loud electro pop was coming through the thin door; Lady Gaga playing at a rather unreasonable level that made the volume in the practice room sound low. Jimin looked at Jungkook and gave him a rather weary expression, yet his friend was just grinning at him; the black straw from his iced coffee between his teeth. So he reached down to grab the handle of the door, pulling down and pushing it open.

"How can you even think with that blasting so loud?" Jimin asked him as he stepped inside the bland box room, dumping the store bag and coffee onto the table so that he could grab one of the chairs and drag it closer to him. Under the music he heard his other friend closing the door behind them.

"I find it so much easier to…" Taehyung paused for a moment, thinking his words over as he sank back in the chair and reached up to tap one manicured nail on his lower lip, "to channel my true self with her assistance so-"

Jimin reached over to hit the screen, dragging the volume down to a much more considerable amount. Jungkook moved to grab another chair from the opposite side of the table, pulling it out so that he could drop into it with a deep groan and stretch his legs out under the table.

"Think about the other students," he argued as he pulled his hand away again and sat down in his own chair. "Not everyone can channel themselves through electro pop, Tae."

"Oh hi, by the way," Taehyung said as he looked between them both. "Just let yourselves in, I don't mind at all." This witticism made them both laugh and he smiled as he moved to sit up in his chair. "Kookie, are you feeling alright? Jimjim said you collapsed."

"Uh huh, I'm good," Jungkook said as he moved the notebooks aside, sliding one across to him and then flipping his open. Jimin moved his notebook aside so that he could open the store bag and collect the kimbap and banana milk for his friend. He moved to place them in front of Jungkook and the young man picked one up to unwrap it, pushing the other one back in his direction.

"They're for you," Jimin explained with a head shake, and he saw him faltering for a moment as he thought this over. Jungkook glanced at the other man and then he lifted the kimbap to take a massive bite. Taehyung shifted to bend down and stick his hand into his tote bag, pulling a large plastic container out and placing it onto the table. He popped the lid off it and reached inside to pull something free.

"Food," Taehyung said without even looking at him, placing an entire roll of kimbap down on a napkin. It hadn't even been cut into pieces. That meant that it was homemade, and knowing his friend probably by his mother. "No ifs, no buts. If you wanna dance, honey, you gotta eat."

"I am eating," Jimin retorted. "I'm just not hungry right now." Taehyung gave him a rather knowing glance that seemed to question this fact before he turned back to the spread of papers in front of him. The pages were covered in rough scrawls of pencil, signaling that he really had been channeling himself earlier. "Jungkookie, did you think of the routine whilst I was done? Figure anything out?"

"Sooyoung could probably help me neaten it up," Jungkook said as he stopped sipping at the banana milk. "I mean, I'm not supposed to go too far off her guidance anyway 'cos this isn't a solo choreographed piece so…I should probably go see her at some point and get some kinda guidance."

"Sounds like a smart plan," Jimin said as he lifted his coffee and took a sip of it, the cool and smooth latte very pleasing on his palate. "If only we could get guidance for the assignment…"

"What? Guidance for a five-hundred word piece?" Taehyung asked as he started playing with his pencil. "Are you kidding me, Jimjim? Surely you can write that much on your own without assistance?"

Jimin forced a fake laugh at this and across the table Jungkook carried on eating, happily gnawing his way through the samgak-kimbap. "I gotta write a one-thousand word artist statement for every single topic we cover, imagine what that feels like."

Jimin turned to his notebook, flipping it open and locating the correct page to see what he had last jotted down. He found a rather decent-sized paragraph and then the rest of the page was virgin, waiting for him to cover it in ink. It wasn't that the assignment was hard exactly, but he couldn't help but feel like his words made little sense. When it came to dancing he needed no guidance and assistance, but when it came to turning movement into words he suddenly found it rather challenging. But if he forced himself to finish it today then at least that was one less thing to worry about. So he moved to grab one of Taehyung's pencils off the table and placed it on the page, ready to use as soon as he was hit by the right thought. It might take seconds to hit him, it might take longer than that, he just hoped that it would hit him soon and save him the trouble. After all, this was just five-hundred words for one part of his project, and there was more work to be done.

"There's gonna be a poetry night at the café tonight," Taehyung said out of the blue as he sat back in his chair and started twisting a lock of hair around his forefinger. "I'm thinking of going, wanna come with?"

"Nope, I hate poetry," Jungkook replied around a mouthful of kimbap. Taehyung gave him a baleful glare and yet the young man didn't see because he was staring at his own notes, eyes moving from side to side as he scanned it.

"Mmm, got an evening math class in college tonight so I can't," Jimin replied, taking another sip of his iced coffee rather than take a bite from the kimbap roll. "But speaking of cafés, I saw Yoongi in there a few minutes ago."

"Wait, Yoongi?" At this Jungkook lifted his head to look at him, notes forgotten in favor of a little gossip. His brow was furrowed rather severely and after a few seconds it seemed to click.

"The sound system guy?" Jimin nodded and his friend stuck his tongue out to lick a smear of mayonnaise out of the corner of his mouth. "How do you know his name?"

"Tae told me, but also I spoke to him and he told me too," Jimin replied, drink straw hovering just in front of his lips. At this his friends made soft noises under their breaths, interested noises from what he could discern.

"I just went over to say hey, thank him for helping out, you know? And we talked about my routine a little, and then I offered to buy him a coffee as a thank you."

Though there was still music still lightly playing out of Taehyung's docking system Jimin felt like a sudden stillness fall on the air; a stillness that came off his two friends. It was a sensation that he couldn't shake and he looked up from his notebook to see that they were both staring at him openly. That just added to the somewhat heavy atmosphere in the air and he couldn't help but speak up to break the sensation.

"What?" Jimin asked as he looked between them both, finding it hard to read their faces. "What's up? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, nothing wrong," Taehyung stated as he shook his head at him. "You didn't do anything wrong, honey, it's just-"

"You were a little forward," Jungkook spoke over him, leaned back in his chair and happily chewing away on a mouthful of kimbap. At this Taehyung gave him a hard kick under the table and yet his youngest friend barely even blinked at the contact.

"Free coffee is too forward?" Jimin asked in confusion. "What? How is that being 'forward', Jungkookie? I didn't ask him out on a date, I offered to buy him a coffee that's-"

"Kinda a date," his friend spoke over him, lips lifting in a rather cheeky grin as he did. "You asked him out without asking him out, you know?" Jimin made a series of disgruntled noises at this and he felt a rather annoying rush of heat burning up his cheeks so he cocked on elbow on the table so that he could cover at least one of his flushed cheeks from view. "What? What're you getting all pouty over?"

"Not getting pouty," Jimin mumbled as he picked up Taehyung's pencil and started tapping it on his notebook. "Shut up."

"Aww," Taehyung cooed as he reached up to grab at his other cheek, squeezing and pulling at it rather hard so that he winced. "It's cute, it's really cute. A coffee date, what's not to love? It's like a KBS romance drama…except gay." Jungkook snorted at this, mostly through his first kimbap at this point

. "Wait…is this Jimjim's first date? Shit! It is, ain't it?"

"No, don't," Jimin said as he sat upright, dropping his hands to the table.

"Don't call it a date and make jokes because it might not be like that at all, and it'll be really embarrassing. OK? So just…" He sighed and stared at his notebook. "It's just a free coffee."

"…Sure thing, honey," Taehyung said as turned back to his own spread of papers, a soft smile on his lips. "It's whatever you wanna call it."

Jimin didn't look up at his friends for several minutes; rather he just stared at the lines of his handwriting in his notebook silently. It crossed his mind in that moment that there was a chance that Yoongi might have thought the exact same thing when he had mentioned the free coffee…after all, he had looked very surprised by the offer. Was the fact that he hadn't hastily turned him down a sign that he maybe wanted the free coffee that might just have been a date? Or was it a sign that Yoongi just actually thought that the offer was simply an offer of thanks and maybe a potential friendship? Jimin didn't really know and he felt rather stupid right now because maybe a date would be pretty nice? He did get the sense that Yoongi acted a little flirtatious around him, but that could just be him reading things wrong. Maybe from lack of experience, or maybe because he wanted to. Well, there was always the free coffee so he supposed that he still had time to try and figure it all out.

"Jimjim, did you sort out the costumes for performance night?" Taehyung asked suddenly, holding a sheet of paper up and squinting at it. Jimin thought this over for a moment before telling him that he had. "Hit me, gimme colors, materials, cuts, whatever: hit me."

"Colors: white and cream. Materials: cotton and silk. Cuts: diaphanous shirt and fitted leggings, barefoot," he explained as he put the pencil down and collected his iced coffee again.

"Gold," Taehyung said as he put the piece of paper down. "Gold jewelry and gold nails, it's settled. Set in gold, ha!"

He laughed at his own witticism and then reached over to grab one of his wrists, tugging it closely to look at his fingers. "You've got tiny hands but pretty nails, I can work with this."

"You're not doing my nails," Jungkook said as he balled up the first empty samgak-kimbap packet and collected the second one.

"Shut up, Kookie, you need makeup too, it's part of the contemporary style," Taehyung retorted without looking over at him. "I don't study dance and even I know that. See," he let go of his hand and shifted to lean closer to him and jimin took a sip of coffee and held his gaze curiously.

"There's a bit of a fantasy feeling coming off your performance, a 'babe in the wood' feel, right? So you gotta look like a little prince, it's perfect."

"OK," Jimin agreed as he put the coffee container down. "I trust you, I know you get the routine and the narrative, so I trust you."

"Mmm," Taehyung purred gleefully, a wide smile on his face as he turned back to his work. "Thanks, honey, I promise to make you look like a real prince but you're already ninety-eight percent there so…" Jimin laughed at this as he finally picked up his pencil again and turned back to his notebook. "If only there was hope for Kookie."

"What?" Jungkook looked up sharply at this, stopping in the act scrawling something in his notebook. "Make me look like a prince too."

"I'm an artist, not a magician," Taehyung stated as he started hastily drawing something, pencil scratching into the paper. Their friend grumbled at this, pretending to be irritated. "OK, you're a prince too. There, happy?"


	9. Shopping

Chapter 9

There was a loud series of knocks on the door and for a few seconds Yoongi couldn't even move because he was too deeply asleep. Even his eyelids refused to open and he just shifted on the bed, feeling his feet knocking against his friend's. Shit, he just wanted to sink back into that wonderful blackness again, just for a little while longer. After all, who the hell was knocking on the door at this early Sunday hour? After a moment there came more knocks and this time Yoongi forced his eyes open to stare at the wall just inches from his nose. Well, at least he hadn't woken himself up by head-butting it today. He supposed that that was a blessing.

"Door," Yoongi said as he reached behind him and prodded somewhere along Namjoon's rib cage.

"You get it," Namjoon mumbled as he moved to roll onto his back, dragging the covers over his face as he did. Yoongi felt himself disappearing under them too and so he had to shove them aside to shuffle down to the bottom of the bed. His underwear brushed against the mattress as he did and he swung his legs over first rather than get upright. He had to rub at his eyes for a few seconds before he could get to his feet, and then he staggered past the closet to get to the door. After a few awkward twists he unlocked the door and pulled it inward to look through a gap in the doorway.

"Good morning~"

Yoongi stared at Seokjin dumbly, noting the sunny smile on his face and his neat appearance. His dark brown hair was in place rather than a nest of tangles and stuck up ends, and he was wearing his usual casual comfortable outfit of choice: a soft pastel blue pullover with dark blue jeans and sneakers, and a backpack shrugged up onto his shoulders. His friend's face was almost glowing because he was wide awake and clearly in a rather great mood, and Yoongi felt like a zombie just looking at him; standing there in a tee and his underwear almost drooling down his chin.

"Huh?" Yoongi mumbled as he reached up to rub at his eyes roughly, rubbing hard enough that he almost risked knocking them back in his skull. When he dropped his arms again he stared at his friend to see that Seokjin was still standing there, that he wasn't some lingering residue from his dreams. "Wuh…what're you doing here?"

"Shopping," Seokjin explained, seemingly not at all bothered about the fact that he had been standing in the hallway for a minute now. "It's Sunday, it's currently 10 AM."

That was why he had his backpack of course, because he couldn't exactly store the store bags in the nonexistent boot of his motorbike. Yoongi thought this over for a moment, brain processing things much too slow because he had been awake for just a minute or two. He had to reach up and rub his eyes one last time, blinking to keep them open fully.

"10 AM? Why's it…my alarm?" Yoongi leaned back to look around the wardrobe. He saw his other friend lying on his stomach in bed; face buried in the pillow and his bleached hair also a mess like his.

"Namjoonie, did you turn the fucking alarm off?"

"I turned it off," Namjoon muttered through the pillow. "'Cos I really wanted to sleep."

Yoongi studied him for a few seconds and then he moved to step out of the doorway so that his friend could get inside the room. Seokjin closed the door over but he didn't shut it, and he made no move to remove his shoes because he was clearly planning on leaving very soon.

"Uh, just gimme a second," Yoongi said as he went over to the wardrobe and start hastily shoving things aside without much care. "I'd already be dressed by now if somebody hadn't turned the alarm off."

On the bed Namjoon shifted to hold a hand up, flashing his middle finger at him. "Just for that I ain't getting you those weird vegan cookie things you like."

"Nnn, I like normal cookies too," Namjoon retorted as he rolled onto his side, the covers still covering most of his lower face.

Yoongi tossed the clothing onto the bed, the leather jacket landing on the slight bumps of his feet, and then he moved to cross the room and enter the slight bathroom. He closed the door over slightly so that he could use the toilet, and then he started brushing his teeth. In the small mirror above the sink he could see his messy hair tangled over his brow and so he reached up to brush it back, much too lazy to attempt neatening it up.

"Aren't you going to make breakfast?" Seokjin asked and so Yoongi peered through the bathroom doorway at him.

"Nope," he replied around a mouthful of bristles and minty foam, feeling a little dribbling out the corner of his mouth. He spat the mouthful out into the sink so that he could speak properly. "The free samples at the supermarket will do me just fine."

As he carried on brushing his teeth he heard his friend laughing at the remark. When he was done he splashed his face with cold water to try and wake himself up and grabbed the towel, patting his face dry as he went into the other section of the room. He tossed it at Namjoon, who had now sat upright in bed, and it actually landed on his head. His friend didn't even move to pull it off, rather he just shook his head to knock it free.

"Did you get feedback on the poetry assignment yet?" Seokjin asked, moving over to the small kitchenette to fill the kettle up with water. He was presumably making coffee for Namjoon.

"Uh, not yet," Namjoon said as he rolled his head back and moved his shoulders. "Think I'll get it on…Tuesday...maybe?"

"What about you?" Seokjin asked him, just as Yoongi was slipping into his jeans.

"Nah, I don't submit my contextual studies for another three weeks and my project work for applied music is due on…" He paused in the act of buttoning the jeans and then turned his head to look at Namjoon.

"When's that due again?"

"In a week?"

"A week, so yeah I'm good," Yoongi muttered, pulling his wrinkled tee off to replace it with another one. He tugged down on the ends and then reached up to ruffle at his hair. "What about you, huh?" he asked as he slipped into his boots, hastily knotting the laces tight.

Across the room he could hear the sound of a spoon knocking against something, metallic clanging against porcelain.

"The same as always," Seokjin replied as he moved to hand Namjoon the mug of instant coffee. "I'm working my way through project work, working my way towards securing a part in the next performance piece."

Yoongi secured his second boot and then he dropped to his knees, pulling both his helmets free from underneath it. He dusted off the spare one hastily and then held it out to his friend. Seokjin moved to collect it, also pulling down on his pullover cuff to dust at the visor with a slight grimace. "I'm aiming for a main role, maybe the supporting male but I would totally go for the main."

"Go for the main and live large, brother," Namjoon said, eyes still pretty much glued shut.

He left the accommodation block with Seokjin a minute later, leather jacket shrugged on and helmet carried snugly in the crook of his elbow against his ribs. On the walk to the lot just around the back of the building Yoongi slipped his helmet on for convenience, the padded interior fitting snug in place, and as he buckled the strap under his chin he could hear the muffled sound of Seokjin copying his actions. His friend was used to riding on his bike and so it wasn't at all awkward sharing with him like it was with other people, so Yoongi just waited for him to climb onto the back and slip his arms loosely around his waist before twisting the throttle and slowly weaving the vehicle out of the lot. The supermarket was a ten minute drive from their block, actually closer than the university campus was, and Yoongi rather enjoyed driving through the somewhat lazy Sunday morning traffic to get there. At least this week there was a spare spot in the lot for them to park in rather than the curb just outside, and so Yoongi killed the engine and they crossed the lot to enter the building.

Just like always he didn't put the helmets under the storage because they were never that long inside the supermarket. He much preferred carrying it in the crook of his elbow as they walked along the cool aisles of goods, feeling the familiar weight swinging as he did. Seokjin had told him it was rather annoying, seen as he had to juggle a helmet and a basket whilst browsing, but today he decided to not complain.

"Did you bring a list?" Seokjin asked as they went straight for the first staple item of choice: rice.

"Nah, I know what to buy by now," Yoongi muttered as his friend hunkered down to look at the large sacks of rice on the lower shelf. He could sense that Seokjin was waiting for him to list things and so he sighed heavily. "Rice, milk, fruit juice, eggs, packets of Nongshim ramen, some beef this week instead of chicken…uh-"

"Sounds like you could do with a list."

"kimchi," he spoke over his friend, "and more coffee, also those stupid weird cookies…"

Yoongi followed his friend across the supermarket just like always, grabbing things off the shelves when he passed them and putting them into his blue basket. He was so used to this routine that he didn't even need to check prices these days, rather just grab the same brand as last week. Seokjin always took longer, always liked to check everything was fresh and that the prices were the same; liked to add it all up on his phone to make sure that he was sticking to his usual budget. Sometimes he might just do something wild, like add a snack into the basket that drove the budget up a little. How wicked of him, Yoongi was often reminded of how his auntie had done that whenever she had taken him shopping on babysitting nights. The woman used to sneak in a packet of bungeoppang with a rather mischievous and tell him to not tell uncle Myungsoo, that it was their little secret that they would share in the car ride back home. They were in the fresh produce aisle when his friend decided to break the silence.

"Namjoonie told me that you were eyeing up another student," Seokjin said as he picked up a punnet of raspberries and checked them over. Yoongi always made sure to buy some fruit every week along with the vegetables so that Namjoon wouldn't complain about his health, but annoyingly most of the sweeter and nicer fruit had to be consumed within a day or two.

"Oh he did, did he?" Yoongi said as he dropped a bunch of bananas into the basket. There, potassium, Namjoon could stop complaining for the week. "What kinda shit did he say to you, huh?"

"He said that you met him in the performance hall," Seokjin said as he put the fruit in his basket and looked up at him. "He was a dancer and he said his name, but I can't recall it right now and he said that it was kind of cute."

"Cute?" Yoongi asked, narrowing his eyes as he did.

"Yes, cute," his friend repeated as he turned back to the fruit. "Cute because you seemed excited or happy or something, like I said I can't really remember because Namjoonie rambled on and on."

Yoongi wondered if his antics the other weekend could be classified as cute, excitable or happy. It was hard to recall, seen as he had been pretty stoned writing a contextual study on a photograph of a brick wall, but maybe he had said a few things that he couldn't really remember right now. Either way, the fact that Namjoon had been gossipping about him was something that he was going to have to address at some

point…probably by gossiping about him in return.

"Oh, and something about a free coffee!" Seokjin said as he added some kiwis into his basket.

Shit, Seokjin had just reminded him about the free coffee. It had been over a week now and yet he had seen no sight of Jimin on campus, so the deal had yet to be struck. Yoongi was caught off-guard for a moment as he studied his friend, uncertain of what to say exactly in reply to this. There was a free coffee offer; but had he maybe missed the window of opportunity?

"Uh, yeah free coffee," he mumbled after a moment of silence. Seokjin straightened up and started walking across the store again and so he followed after him. "Jimin offered to buy me coffee. Maybe as thanks, I dunno? I didn't do shit so it doesn't make much sense…"

"So his name is Jimin?" Seokjin said as he looked back at him and Yoongi almost kicked himself for letting it slip like that. There was a chance that his friend might start looking around now that he knew that there was a dancer called Jimin on campus, and he doubted that there many other Jimins, male and female, for him to get through until he found him. Which Seokjin totally would do to embarrass him, he knew that he would.

"That's good to know…" They were heading off across the aisle in the direction of the till and that was when he was hit by something, a sudden thought coming to mind. Yoongi stopped walking suddenly, head cocked as he tried to figure out what he had been thinking about.

"Wait, booze," he said as he hastily went back down the aisle to grab two bottles of Jinro soju. He could see that his friend was waiting for him, a rather weary expression on his face as he placed the bottles inside the basket. "Now we can blow this joint."


	10. Numbers

Chapter 10

Just like always the store bags went inside Seokjin's backpack, bulking it out and likely weighing a considerable amount. His friend never complained however, rather he just shrugged it up securely on his shoulders and climbed onto the back of the bike. The drive to the accommodation usually felt shorter than the drive to the supermarket, though Yoongi was never sure why that was the case. Today he really wanted to get back to the block however because there was something that he had to do before he forgot about it; that something being messaging Hoseok to get a certain number before their chat room ended up filled with stupid videos, llamas and Namjoon's drunk messages. However, when they entered the room again he saw a rather interesting sight.

Hoseok had also decided to crash with them for the day, meaning that the small room was going to feel even smaller as a result of four people being packed inside. Their friend was sitting on the floor rather than the bed or at the desk, long legs stretched out and a bottle of soda in hand, and Namjoon was nowhere in sight. Hoseok was wearing a fitted white tee and black jeans, his creepers currently placed beside the door, and when they stepped inside he looked up sharply from his phone.

"Namjoonie's using up all of the leftover shit, making some weird meal in the floor kitchen," he explained. "I dunno what to expect beyond excitement."

"Hey, you said you owed me a favor, yeah?" Yoongi said as he dumped the helmet on the kitchenette counter and reached up to start shrugging his jacket off. Hoseok made a noise at this, clearly wondering where he was going. He took a moment to think his words over, not at all sure how to say them in any other way. "Gimme Jimin's number," he finished eventually.

"What? No," Hoseok replied without missing a beat, expression shifting into one of absolute sheer confusion. He furrowed his brow severely and pulled the corner of his lips down in something close to a grimace. "Why would I give you his number? You don't even know him."

"I do know him, actually," Yoongi argued. "Earlier this week I saw him in the café and we talked a little, and he offered to buy me coffee sometime. So there. Gimme his number, Seokseok."

"So…you want his number so you can demand a free coffee," Hoseok said, more of a statement than a question. "That's what's happening right now?"

"…Well, when you put it like that it sounds weird-"

"Sounds really weird," Hoseok agreed with a solemn nod.

"Sounds cheap too," Seokjin added as he unzipped the backpack and started pulling his shopping free to dump it on the bed. Goddamn, he thought that their older friend was on his side but apparently not. "Yoongi wants to go on a date."

"Ooooh," Hoseok dropped his phone onto his thigh at this, eyes wide and lips pouted out. "Did you just say a date? Yoongi, and the word 'date' in the same sentence?"

"Look, it's Sunday and that's the one day I'm sure he should be free," Yoongi spoke over him, trying his very hardest to ignore their childish behavior. "It's free coffee and I want it. I don't care if it's weird or cheap or whatever, just gimme. You owe me a favor and I'm exacting that favor right now."

Hoseok thought this over for a moment, pressing the rounded curve of the soda bottle against his lips as he did, and Yoongi almost hopped from foot to foot impatiently. He knew that his friend was dragging it out on purpose just to annoy him and it was working. But eventually he decided to give him the number, listing the string of digits out slowly for him to save in his contacts. Yoongi muttered something that sounded like 'thanks' as he moved to sit on the end of the bed. He hadn't even taken his boots off yet and here he was, attempting to type up a message. He stared at his screen for a minute as he tried to figure out what to type, finding it suddenly somewhat harder than it should have been. It was just a few lines if that, a dozen or so words maybe, and yet he found himself going completely blank of what to type. The fact that he could sense Seokjin and Hoseok looking at him didn't help him either.

"Uh…" Yoongi sighed and furrowed his brow, thumb almost clumsily moving across the screen as he typed out something simple and hit send. The bubble of text popped up on the screen with a soft sound.

 _so about that coffee? (its Yoongi, blame Hoseok he gave me ur number)_

Yoongi eyed the screen and he wondered if his message had been a little too blunt, too joking in a rather unappealing way. It was pretty childish and he almost wished that he could take it back but it was too late now. Well, that was great. He had spent about three minutes trying to think of something witty and the message just looked stupid instead. He was not going to tell his friends what he sent no matter what they asked him, no matter if they tackled him to the floor to try and get his phone and check the screen. Namjoon returned a minute later from the shared flood kitchen, with a large pot of raman and a plate of mandu that was likely stale on a tray.

"Yoongi is going on a date!" Hoseok declared as he moved to also sit on the floor beside him. Yoongi could only glare at his friend as he moved to grab a set of chopsticks, not in the mood for an argument with him right now. He was still waiting to see if his message would even be checked or if he was going to have to wait for a few hours. Shit, that would be awkward. He hoped that he wasn't left waiting for five hours whilst his friends made jokes about him. "It's not exactly a date though, seen as he's a cheap fuck that isn't even playing for shit."

"The free coffee?" Namjoon asked as he started chewing on a piece of mandu. "Also, did you get any coffee this time?"

"…Shit, no," Yoongi said as he lowered the phone and looked at his friend. "I actually forgot."

"I told him he should make a list," Seokjin remarked as he moved to sit with them, wanting to share the strange pot of ramyun with floating chunks of meat and other random items that had been tossed into it. "But he never does."

Yoongi was about to say something in return,some kind of witty retort, but before he could his phone vibrated rather hard and loud in his hand. He almost dropped it in shock as he checked the screen to make sure that it wasn't Hoseok texting him for a joke to piss him off. Then he hastily unlocked his device, aware that his friends had heard the message alert and that they were looking at him.

 _11am campus café? (^_^)_

Yoongi let his breath out in a hard huff as he lowered his phone again, and a few seconds later he checked it just to make sure that it was real and that he wasn't seeing things. Yes, Jimin had replied to his message rather quickly and he hadn't imagined it. There was even a smiley face. So he quickly typed a reply back, having to correct a few woeful typos as he did, and then he hit send and looked up at the time on the top of the screen. 10:35. He could make it there with a few minutes to spare if he left in a minute or two, and so he got to his feet to grab his leather jacket and slip it on.

"Ha, joke's on you assholes," he laughed as he tugged his arm through and fixed the jacket. "Guess who's being a cheapass and getting free coffee and spending time with a cute guy today? Hint: not you."

"Get it, man," Hoseok said as he lifted his bottle of soda up in mock cheers. "I mean, it sucks you're ditching us like this but you know; have fun."

"Ditching? I'll be gone like…an hour maybe," Yoongi retorted as he locked his phone and shoved it into his jeans pocket.

"I can't believe he finally landed a date," Seokjin said with a look of disbelief. If he wasn't being serious then his acting was flawless, he had to given him that. "I'm both proud and slightly embarrassed."

"A date?" Namjoon asked as he looked between him and Seokjin, a clump of noodles between his chopsticks dropping stock down into the pot. "Uh, it was just free coffee, right? Isn't calling it a date a little…I dunno? He offered to buy you coffee not suck your dick so…"

"Namjoonie, d'you really expect that from a first date?" Yoongi asked sarcastically as he cocked his head. "Hey look, he can buy me coffee and I can suck his dick. Yeah?"

"No, no dick sucking," Hoseok argued as he put his soda down and lifted both hands into the air for emphasis. "Seriously, I mean it. Jimin's my friend and he's not cheap like Namjoonie's ex's."

At this Namjoon snorted as he started chewing the noodles. "And by that we all know that I mean Minjoo but let's not go there-"

"Oh my god," Seokjin announced as he put down the chopsticks dramatically. "Can we please not talk about my cousin like this? Just this one time?"

"OK, fine," Hoseok muttered around a mouthful of mandu. Yoongi moved to grab his helmet off the counter, slipping it into the crook of his elbow as he did.

"Sayonara, assholes," he said as he pulled the door open and stepped out of the room, hearing them all calling shit back at him until the door clicked shut and blissfully cut them off.


	11. Sparks

Chapter 11

On the ride to the campus café Yoongi found it rather hard to think because there was a funny sensation that felt like nerves coursing through him. He really hadn't expected a reply like this at all, from it being very quick or because there was a chance that Jimin might have changed his mind about the free coffee because he had just said it to seem nice that day. He had thought that maybe Jimin would see the unknown number on his screen, along with the rather stupid message, and he would have decided to ignore it for a little while before sending something back; something about him being too busy but he would get back to him when he was free. Which he would magically never be. Yet Jimin had replied to his message with a time and a location and it felt almost like a date even though he knew that that might not be the case.

Would he reply back so quickly just to be courteous?

The ride to the café seemed to take forever when in reality it was just fifteen minutes or so in the light traffic. Yoongi tried to not be impatient but it was hard, and he was usually a patient person by nature. Sitting at sets of lights had him almost squirming on the seat whilst he waited for them to change, but eventually he had no need to because he was pulling up at the curb just outside the café, pulling the clutch lever out fully and then twisting the keys in the ignition. He reached up to unbuckle his helmet first and pulled it free before climbing off the motorbike, which was secure on its stabilizers. As he pulled the keys free to unlock the seat storage he glanced into the café window and he saw that there was a familiar shock of jet black hair right at the very edge of the frame. Jimin was sitting inside, at one of the tables ten minutes early and when they locked eyes he saw him moving.

Shit, Jimin had just given him one of those tinkling little waves of his and so Yoongi lifted his own hand to return it as he lifted the seat cover up to shove the helmet in the storage section. He shoved the seat down and locked it again, reaching up to try and fix his hair as he did. He likely looked messy as hell right now but didn't he always? Yoongi shoved the keys into his jeans pocket and then moved to cross the short stretch of sidewalk to enter the café.

When Yoongi stepped inside he saw that the interior was rather quiet and empty, not like it usually was. As a result it was easy to spot Jimin seated the far corner table, though his dark clothing made it easy to do that too. Yoongi could see that he wasn't wearing his usual dance clothing but rather faded and torn-up jeans and a white tee, but it was his black hoodie that caught his eye. It looked rather big on him, like it would hang off his frame in all the wrong places in the most endearing way possible. Jimin had been looking out of the window of course, but when the bell sounded he looked over at him and Yoongi was pretty sure that he saw a smile on his face.

The mere thought that he might have smiled because of him made Yoongi's stomach feel rather funny just like the duration of the bike ride, and it was hard to stop his own smile from appearing on his face.

"You're here early," Yoongi remarked as he moved to get closer to him. One of the few customers inside glanced at him briefly before turning back to her laptop, earphones in playing soft acoustic guitars from what his sharp ears could detect.

"I could say the same for you," Jimin replied as he reached the table and lightly pulled the opposite chair out. The young man had his elbows folded on the rather rough untreated surface, and Yoongi managed to not copy his position. "But I didn't know you had a bike so that makes sense. It's nice; what model is it?"

" _Royal Enfield Thunderbird Twinspark_ ," Yoongi replied without a hint of hesitation, the English words rolling off his tongue with ease even though they were rather complex. At this Jimin let out a sudden laugh and the sound caused another funny burst of butterflies in the pit of his stomach. "Want me to run that by you again?"

"Yes please," Jimin agreed as he stopped laughing and shifted to cock his head and listen carefully.

"Repeat after me. _Royal_. "

" _Royal_ ," Jimin said with a slight hint of accent on the ' _y'_ that made it sound too thick, too heavy.

" _Enfield_ ," Yoongi said with a slight smile.

" _Enpe- no, Enfield_ , " Jimin dragged the word out but he got there rather well.

"This part's the fun part, _Thunderbird_. You might wanna split it up into two words."

"I can do it, I can," Jimin wriggled on the seat and stuck the tip of his tongue out to wet his lips. " _Thunder_... _buh-bird_. Easy, what's the last part?"

Yoongi paused before saying the last word, just taking a moment to observe Jimin in the soft sunlight coming in through the window. It fell across his face in the most perfect of ways, made his eyes almost glow in a myriad of brown from deep chocolate to a slightly lighter honey-tinged note. Jimin held his gaze unblinkingly as he waited for him to speak, lips pouted out, and then he seemed to notice that he was staring and his cheeks suddenly seemed to flush with a hint of pink. Yoongi decided that he should probably give him a reply now.

" _Twinspark_ ," he said smoothly, seeing Jimin's brow twitch at the word, and then his lips. He made a few soft sounds under his breath as he tried to get it right, struggling with connecting the first two syllables because he kept stressing too heavily on the first. "You gonna give up or?"

"No no, let's just call it…" Jimin turned his head to look out of the window at the bike again, running his eyes over the red and black paint job on the engine block and the flowing silver letters. " _Sparky_!"

 _Sparky_? Why did hearing that made Yoongi feel the need to start laughing, a rather frothy mixture of giggles spreading in the pit of his stomach that threatened to spill free so he had to bit down on his lower lip. When Jimin turned back to him with a rather pleased smile on his face he couldn't help but laugh.

" _Sparky_ is cute and easier to say." The air fell silent for a moment, nothing but the faded sounds of traffic coming in through a slight gap in the open window, and then he made a soft noise. "Oh, the orders, um-"

"I can go order if you want?" Yoongi offered, lifting a hand to lazily gesture back at the counter.

"I'm the one buying, right?" Jimin said as he moved to get out of his chair, that same smile still present on his face. Yoongi found himself hoping that it might stay around for the duration of their meeting if possible. "What do you take?"

"Americano," Yoongi replied before jokingly humming a rather familiar tune under his breath. Jimin actually went to start singing the words when he stopped and so the other man started laughing again, the pitch rather high-pitched because he was clearly embarrassed. From what he heard however he seemed to have a rather pleasant voice. Yoongi was almost tempted to start humming again just in case he carried on singing.

"What'd you take?"

"Caffé au lait," Jimin said, still lingering by the table rather than go over to the counter. "Talk about completely different tastes."

"Opposites attract," Yoongi replied a little too quickly, realising he had said it only after he had closed his mouth. He felt a brief rush of embarrassment at this and yet Jimin had a smile on his face as he crossed the café to get to the counter. He shifted to watch him go and then he turned back to look at the table. After a moment he pulled his phone free to check the screen just for the sake of it, seeing a bunch of notifications that he decided to ignore as he shoved the device back into his jeans. It took Jimin a moment to get the orders and in that time Yoongi just watched the occasional roll of traffic that went passed out the window until he was placing the saucers down on the table and sitting back down in front of him.

"Um, Jungkookie said that you're a freshman but you're older; that you're twenty?" Jimin asked as he pulled his chair in. At this he nodded as he moved his cup closer to him, the saucer scraping on the wood ever so slightly.

"Yeah, I went travelling with 'em," Yoongi explained as he dropped his gaze to look at his own coffee. "With Seokseok, Namjoonie - he studies applied music and creative writing, and Seokjin - he majors in acting."

"You study applied music and photography, right?" Jimin asked, before adding. "A friend of mine sees you in the labs sometimes, working on music and stuff."

"Are you the same age as, uh, Jungkook?"

"No, I'm already nineteen," Jimin explained as he stopped twisting the cup around and lifted it to take a sip. "I major in dance here, obviously, but I take evening elective maths classes at a nearby college. Myongji."

"Maths?" Yoongi asked as he wrapped his hands around the cup, the warmth heating up his palms almost instantly. "So you're smart, huh?"

"Yes," Jimin replied with a rather shy smile as he reached up to run a hand through his hair. "I'm smart."

He was just about to lower his hand to the table again when Yoongi noticed something, something rather interesting about his fingers. It wasn't his rings, which he saw quite a few of - mostly thick metal rings or black bands, but rather the fact that his nails were a rather startling shade of gold.

"Oh," he tugged on his sleeves to try and hide his fingers from sight. "It was a test, for the performance night. We have to put a lot of work into our visual presentation too so we have costumes, makeup; it's all important. Tae, my friend, was trying to find the right tone for my visuals so…"

Jimin stopped talking and let out a rather awkward laugh. "I look pretty funny, right?"

"Gold suits you," Yoongi said after a moment of thought, seeing that Jimin was still pulling his hoodie cuffs over his fingers as if trying to hide them from view. So he reached over to lightly take hold of one of his hands, folding the cuff back so that they were revealed again. In his grip he felt the younger man tensing slightly, particularly when his fingers brushed against his knuckles. "It suits you perfectly, so don't do that."

"Don't you find it…" Jimin paused to try and think his words over. "Don't you find it a little strange?"

"Why'd I find it strange?" Yoongi asked as he lifted his cup to take a sip of his coffee.

"Well, I mean people usually find it strange," he explained as he turned the cup on the saucer again, playing with it in a fidgety manner. "My friend gets made fun of sometimes, because he wears things like makeup and nail varnish. People stare at him a lot."

"Does your friend give a shit?"

"Ah, no," Jimin laughed softly and shook his head in reply. "No, Tae doesn't give a shit."

"Then it don't matter, yeah?" Yoongi said as he eyed him over the cup. "You said it's for a performance, so it's art and it don't matter. But even if it was just 'cos you wanted to wear it, it don't matter."

"…That's nice," Jimin said as he finally stoned playing with his cup to look at him. "That's a nice sentiment, one I wish I could relate to."

"Well, if people stare at you just know this," Yoongi put the cup back down so that he could fold his arms on the table in perfect imitation of his posture. He even cocked his head ever so slightly so that he could hold his eye-contact completely. "They're staring at you 'cos you look good. OK?"

At this the other student started laughing, that same rather high-pitched giggle that he had done earlier when he had embarrassed himself. He lifted his hand to cover his mouth as he did, revealing his nails without a single hint of self-consciousness.

"I'm still waiting on an agreement," Yoongi said with his own smile as Jimin lowered his hand and shifted his gaze across the café interior. "OK?"

"OK," Jimin agree with a nod, still avoiding his eyes as he did. Yes, there was most certainly a pinkness to his cheeks just like earlier, a sign that his compliment had worked.

"So, what's with the costume?" Yoongi asked, coffee completely ignored in favour of something much more pleasing. "What're we talking here? Sequins? Crazy shit?"

"The costume theme for the routine is - wait," Jimin paused and lifted a hand to wave at him. "You're cheating!"

"Huh, cheating?" he asked in confusion, reaching up to point at himself. "What'd you mean? I was just asking about the costume 'cos I was curious and-"

"I just nearly told you the narrative for the routine and you haven't even guessed yet," Jimin explained.

"Ah shit, I forgot you were smart," Yoongi retorted as he reached up to scratch at the back of his head jokingly. Just like he had been hoping that same amused grin stayed on Jimin's face and he knew right there and then he had to just keep finding ways to make it appear.

"Lemme guess, you want me to take a shot at the narrative again. Right?" Jimin nodded and lifted up his cup, finally taking a proper sip for what must have been the first time over the duration of the 'date'. "I said love, yeah? But I need to be more specific so, uh, I'm gonna go with romantic. Am I getting close here?"

"Yes, you're finally in the ballpark," Jimin said, holding the cup in front of his lips. There was a slight blob of foam in the corner that he hoped he would lick free before the urge to reach over and wipe it off overcame him.

"In the ballpark? Shit, that was my guess," Yoongi exclaimed, causing another snort of laughter.

"OK, so I found the song again but it took me forever and Namjoonie's shitty obsession with nineties' music to find it, and it's about…" He drummed his fingers on the table for effect, seeing Jimin dropping his gaze to watch him. "Kisses."

"Wow, you're smart too," the dancer joked as he lowered his cup back onto the saucer. "What kind of kisses?"

"Secret kisses - forbidden love," Yoongi said, and a moment later he jerked in his seat. "It's forbidden, yeah? That's why she sings about running off with the guy, right?"

"Bzzzz, you're wrong," Jimin said, laughing for a moment before stopping. "Well, I mean…you're not wrong but the forbidden aspect isn't the most important part of it."

"So it is forbidden?" Yoongi asked, narrowing his eyes at him ever so slightly. "Why's it forbidden, huh?"

"Maybe I'll tell you if you get the right answer?" Jimin suggested, before hastily adding. "But only one guess a day so you can't guess again!"

"Guess I'll just have to listen to the song a few more times and try and figure it out."

"And maybe watch the routine again," Jimin suggested as he lifted his cup to take another deep sip of coffee. Yoongi could see the way his lips quirked up at the corners, not fully hidden behind the cup.


	12. Bike Ride

Chapter 12

By the time that they were finished with their coffees and a little bit of small talk here and there, Yoongi saw that he had spent just under an hour in Jimin's company and yet it felt like mere minutes to him. There was just something about listening to him talking about the upcoming performance night, about watching him talk, that arrested his attention.

Yoongi did his own fair share of talking too, explaining about how his applied music classes varied from learning by the ear to learning an instrument to supplement his composition and ensemble classes; and how his focus for his photography class was just to work on his techniques for the year and build up his skills. As he spoke he shifted his attention from Jimin to the window, at the cup in front of him and back again, and every time that he did he saw that Jimin was watching him just as intently as he watched him. When it came to leaving the café he made sure to get the door first to hold it for him.

"I can drop you off, if you want?" Yoongi offered as he cocked his head in the direction of his bike. "Uh, wherever that is of course."

"I've never been on a bike before," Jimin said as he stepped onto the sidewalk eyed the vehicle with that same interest as earlier.

"Wanna try it out, huh?"

"…OK," he said after a moment of thought. "OK, it looks kind of cool." For some reason Yoongi found himself smiling at this as he pulled his keys free and walked along the sidewalk to get to the vehicle. He unlocked the seat storage and pulled it up before realizing that the only had a single helmet on him.

"Uh, you wear it," Yoongi said as he held the helmet out to him. "Next time I'll make sure to pack a spare."

"Next time?" Jimin asked as he accepted the helmet from him. He studied the front for a few seconds before lifting his gaze to look at him and Yoongi saw something glinting away in his eyes.

"There'll be a next time," Yoongi said with a smirk, and yet despite sounding very confident about it he found himself suddenly doubting that burst of cockiness. Jimin laughed and yet he still felt the most pressing urge to blurt something out and cover his ass. "There'll be a next time, right?"

"Yes," Jimin said as he turned his attention back to the helmet. "There will be a next time."

Yoongi had to take the helmet out of his hands because Jimin seemed uncertain how to put it on, turning it this way and that rather than try and pull it in place. He made sure that the buckles were hanging loose and then he held it over his head and pulled it in place. The young man made a funny noise that was muffled by the helmet and Yoongi pulled it on snugly before reaching down to do the buckle. Just as he did Jimin also reached up to attempt it, so his fingers brushed against his wrists. The contact was almost electric and Yoongi slipped the buckles together, hearing the loud snapping sound to let him know it was secure.

"There, done," he said as he knocked his knuckles against the side of the helmet. Jimin's shoulders went up at this and then he reached up to touch the helmet. The clash of his gold nails against the black plastic was fantastic.

"Where to, huh?" As he climbed onto the bike the other student gave him the address of his block. "Oh yeah, I know that street. It's around Namsan Tower, right? Just guide me if I go a little off target, yeah?"

Jimin made a noise as he shifted to climb onto the back, his knees knocking against his thighs as he tried to get comfortable. After a moment he moved to loosely wrap his arms around his waist and Yoongi felt his helmeted chin settling on his shoulder.

"Hold on tight, alright?"

Yoongi couldn't recall his first time riding on a motorbike because he had been riding one since he had been riding on since he had gotten his first level license at sixteen. From there he had worked his way up from the low allowance of 100 cc to get to 150, and then all the way up to his current bikes 350 cc. But the one thing that he knew was that the experience didn't really change that much over time. He had friends that loved riding it, like Namjoon and Seokjin, to friends that hated it like Hoseok. Even after four years of sharing the back Hoseok still told him that he always felt like he was going to fall off and he climbed off the bike pale and wobbly legged. Jimin might hate the feeling too, and for a moment he felt his arms tightening around his waist as he switched gears and started picking up speed. But as the seconds turned to minutes Jimin seemed to loosen that tightness, a sign that he might just be getting comfortable.

Though Yoongi knew the name of the street roughly he did require some directions from Jimin to get to the block, for he ended up straying a little too far from the target. It was rather funny listening to his muffled voice through the helmet as he was used to riding solo or with a silent partner on the back, but it was an experience that he would happily repeat over and over if possible. They ended passing Namdaemun market, somewhere that Yoongi made a mental note to visit at some point in the future, and when they finally got to the block he pulled up to the curb just beside the side entrance door. Yoongi didn't kill the engine but rather dropped the gears and pulled the clutch lever out to halfway to stall the engine so that Jimin could climb off the back. The young man moved to remove the helmet himself, golden nails scrabbling at the buckle so he could pop it open and pull it off, and as he did Yoongi couldn't help but stare at his face.

The act of pulling the helmet free dragged his hair back off his face, revealing his brow perfectly. There were no stray locks of black falling over it to slightly obscure his eyebrows, and as he pulled it completely off he scrunched his face up slightly from the effort. His face looked a little flushed from being trapped inside the padded contraption and Jimin reached up to try and fix his hair with a grin.

"It's hard to breathe in that thing, huh?" he joked, running his hand through his hair and knocking a few locks forward.

"You should wear it back more often," Yoongi suggested in a quiet voice as he held the helmet out to him again. At his words Jimin studied him silently, blinking slowly as he processed his words. He accepted the helmet but didn't put it on just yet, just in case he wanted to talk. Jimin turned his head to study the block of concrete and then he looked back at him.

"See you soon, right?" Jimin said as he moved to hover by the door.

"I hope so," Yoongi replied as he lifted the helmet up and pulled it on.

Whilst he secured it in place he didn't move to unlock the door using the keypad and so he lifted his hand to give him one of his characteristic waves. Yoongi pulled the clutch lever out again so that he could twist the throttle and pull back into the road as he returned it. When he got to the end of the street, waiting for the slow roll of traffic to break so he could curve onto the next road, he spared a quick glance back to see that Jimin was just disappearing inside the building. So he drove down a few blocks before stopping the bike again so he could finally have a cigarette, which he had been craving more the best part of half an hour now. He killed his bike so that he could sit with his boots resting on the curb and his back to the traffic; cigarette stick bobbing between his pursed lips as he thought about Jimin had said to him.

"There will be a next time."


	13. Pins and Needles

**A/N: This chapter is a little longer than the others so beware...**

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Chapter 13

For the first time in a few days Jimin was on campus not for the purpose of rehearsing in small practice room, or a study room to finish his assignment work, but rather he was standing in a completely new section of building that he had never been in before. It was a wide building with windows running all over the lengths of the walls to let in ample lighting and it seemed that fashion students would work inside it, tables and mannequins placed here and there. As a result of the windows the interior was wonderfully bright and Jimin quite liked the building. He liked seeing the half-created designs tacked onto mannequins and trying to figure out what the theme was, trying to figure out the material by sight alone.

Taehyung had told them that they had a little time to themselves, because the sophomore fashion students usually didn't show until the early afternoon hours today. That meant that he could do a quick fitting run for them both before working on the sewing and embellishments. As a result Jimin had been standing on a stool for the best part of twenty-five minutes now, but at least he was no longer clad only in his underwear and instead wearing the leggings that his friend had altered for him a few days ago. Right now he had several pieces of fabric on his upper body which were being tacked in place by pins. Jimin was trying his very hardest to stay still and be patient but it was hard doing so. The stool was uncomfortable under his bare soles and he just wanted to sit down and relax his back for a few minutes because there was a slight knot at the very base of his spine he wanted to be rid of. Standing on the stool unable to do much more than move under Taehyung's guiding hands, Jimin wasn't surprised at all to find his mind wandering.

It had been three days now since he had seen Yoongi, since they had shared coffee at the campus café. Jimin had been strongly tempted to message him several times and yet he had been uncertain what to message. There had been the simple queries of course, asking him how he was, if his classes were going well, but he had stopped himself. There had been niggling ideas to maybe take a photo of the campus one morning and add a mundane message about the weather, but he had once again stopped himself. He was a little worried about looking too eager or coming across strongly like his friends had told him about, in case that was off-putting. Jimin just wished that he could pluck up the courage to do so and so he told himself if Yoongi didn't message him today then he would just go for it. After all, Yoongi had said that he wanted to talk to him soon. Maybe he was just waiting to message him too? Maybe he was trying to figure out if he should talk about the weather or if there was something much more interesting to talk about?

The sound of Jungkook humming under his breath pulled him out of his musings and Jimin looked up to see that his friend was lounged back in the desk chair rather comfortably. He had one leg cocked up on the seat and the other stretched out in front of him, tight light blue jeans surprisingly easy to move in and his loose white tee wrinkled from his slouched position. Jimin wished that he could get a little more comfortable but right now he needed to stay rigid and still so that their other friend could carry on securing the template pieces together, pinching and pinning. This was his first proper costume fitting but Taehyung had measured him before, had created random items of clothing that he was still working on and would never show him. One day he might just get to see them but he had a feeling Taehyung was creating them as gifts.

Jimin turned his head to see his friend moving to take a few steps back and observe him. Seen as he wasn't creating art today his friend was dressed differently, no longer wearing paint-covered white pullovers but rather a loose denim smock top with his usual wide-legged black trousers. He was also wearing a black and white bandanna, the ends knotted to stick up like antenna, and his hair had parted at the centre to fall clear of his eyes so he could work undisturbed. Taehyung ran his eyes up and down his body slowly, taking in his clothing carefully.

"Honey, you've gone down an inch or so…" Taehyung said in a quiet voice, tapping his thimble-covered fingers on his lips. There was a pincushion on his left wrist shaped like a flower, the leaves a lush yellow that clashed against his red hair. "I don't even need to measure to see that, you're shrinking fast."

"Skipping meals will do that to you," Jungkook remarked as he lounged back in the chair, the mechanism creaking slightly.

"I haven't been skipping meals," Jimin argued as his friend moved closer to him again. "I've been drinking way too much coffee and stressing out, that's why I've lost a little weight."

"Uh huh, well lay off the caffeine," Taehyung said as he tucked another fold under his armpits to pin it securely. "You're losing your ass, OK, and I don't wanna see that go unless you're walking away from me."

"I'll try but it's hard," Jimin mumbled as he felt his fingers tucking and feeling along his shoulder joint.

"You don't wanna drop like me," Jungkook warned as he shifted to pick up Taehyung's concertina file and pop it open, eyeing the contents because there was little else for him to do but play with scissors. "So less coffee, more samgyeopsal and bibimbap. Yeah?"

"Yes." He nodded as Taehyung moved to start working on the collar, carefully folding the fabric so that his fingers lightly brushed against the nape of his neck in a ticklish manner. "Only if you're buying though," he joked, earning some laughter from his friends as he did. "Is my costume hard to make, Tae?"

"Not really," Taehyung replied as he dropped down to grab hold of his wrist and lift his arm up straight. "It's making a shirt that actually fits you without fitting that's the hard part. I can't just swamp you in fabric, honey, you'll look like a kid playing dress up. So I've got to-" he pulled a couple of pins free from the cushion to stick in his mouth and then pulled one free, "really make sure it all falls where it's supposed to."

"Sounds complicated," Jimin replied as he dropped his head to stare down at his bare feet.

"Nu-uh, it's not that hard so don't worry about it, honey," Taehyung said with a soft head shake. His hair shifted from the movement but didn't get in his eyes like usual.

The workstation fell silent at this again, nothing more than the sound of Jungkook shifting in the chair, rustling paper as he flicked through the file, and the sound of the fabric rubbing against Taehyung's fingers. Jimin found his mind wandering again, playing over the idea of maybe messaging Yoongi about more coffee, or a trip to café for a small snack just to please his friends. He was trying to recall what they sold in the building when heard a rather distinct sound.

His phone sounded loudly from across the room, the alert tone unmistakable because they all had different tones set.

At the sound Jimin looked up and he saw that Jungkook was eyeing his hoodie with great interest. His friend turned his head to look at him curiously, no doubt wondering who had sent him a message seen as they were all present save for Hoseok. The exact same thought crossed his mind too and he could only come to one conclusion.

"Um, can I just check my phone for a second-"

"Honey, keep still," Taehyung spoke over him, muttering around the dress pins. "Be thankful I didn't stick this several inches into your carotid, yeah?"

"I know, I know I just wanna check my phone so…"

Jungkook moved to reach inside his hoodie for him, pulling the device free from his pocket. Jimin expected him to get up and hand it over to him and yet he just checked the screen instead, his expression shifting into a rather humored grin. He didn't know why exactly but when his friend opened his mouth and started talking he realized why.

"I didn't know you had Yoongi's number?" he remarked as he looked up from the screen to grin at him. "Since when have you had this, huh? And when were you gonna tell us?"

"Seriously?" Taehyung asked, moving to slip another pin into the material. "You've got his number? What, did you ask for it?"

"No, Yoongi got it from Hoseok so he could message me about-" he didn't get to finish this because his two friends started making noises over him, excited and rather crazy sounding noises that caught him by surprise and made him actually jump. For a few seconds he could only stand there dumbly as they both almost cheered for him, and then he felt a laugh escaping. "What?"

"He asked Hoseok for your number?" Taehyung asked, as if he might just have misheard him a minute ago, so Jimin told him that he had. When he confirmed this his friend gave him a wide grin. "Honey, that means he's interested in you."

"Totally interested in you," Jungkook agreed with a nod as he looked at the screen again.

Jimin couldn't help but wonder what the hell he had messaged him so suddenly out of the blue for. His last musing came to mind and he wondered if that was what it was. Yoongi had messaged him for coffee again, he was more than certain of it, and the thought that he might just have done so made him fidget on the stool almost anxiously. If it wasn't coffee then it was something else instead, the content didn't really matter because Yoongi had finally plucked up the courage to message him first.

"Honey," Taehyung scolded as he reached down to grab his waist and hold him still.

"Just my phone, can I just check it for one second?"

"Give me like five minutes, then you can check, alright?"

"…Alright," he agreed in a rather sullen voice, lowering his shoulders as he did until Taehyung forced them back up again. Jungkook was still looking at his phone with a rather…mischievous expression on his face, and after a minute of thought he looked up at him.

"Should I ask him if he does anal?"

"Jungkookie, don't even joke about that!" Jimin cried out, unable to stop himself because his friend had his phone in hand and he quite honestly believe that he would message him that as his own twisted version of a joke. Jungkook's grin had reached momentous proportions, his nose wrinkled up in a sign of sheer contentment and he was certain that he saw his thumb swiping across the screen.

""Hey, Yoongi,"" Jungkook said in a rather annoying simpering tone.

"When you jerk off do you use your right, or your left?""

"Jungkookie, I swear to god-"

""Or do you like to…"" Jungkook paused for a moment, his expression shifting that showed that he had just thought of the best thing possible.

But underneath the dawning realization Jimin could see something that looked like uncertainty, as if he was wondering if he might end up dead if he finished his train of thought. ""Or do you-""

"Kookie," Taehyung intoned, actually moving to grab hold of his waist so that Jimin wouldn't get off the stool.

"do you like to assturbate like me and-""

Before Jimin could possibly get down off the stool Taehyung beat him to it, hastily stepping around him to hold his hand out and demand he give him the phone. Jungkook was laughing so loud that he was slumped back in the chair, actually stomping one foot down on the floor so that his thick boot sole made a sound akin to a war drum. So Taehyung moved to snatch it out of his grip and then he grabbed the book of fabric swatches, smacking him hard on the top of the head with it. Their younger friend cried out in mingled surprise and pain, reaching up to touch the likely tender spot.

"D'you kiss your mom with that mouth, huh?" Taehyung asked as he held the phone out to him, and Jimin gladly grabbed it to check the screen. He saw that it was still locked, Jungkook had just been pretending a moment ago.

"No, I kiss yours," Jungkook retorted without missing a beat, still grinning even though he knew that he was in for it.

"Don't you talk about my mom like that you little-" Jimin unlocked his phone to the sound of his two friends tussling across the room, a series of giggles and thumping sounds that were hard to discern but sounded like kicks as Jungkook no doubt tried to stop him from getting too close with those boots of his.

"I'm gonna stab you right in the nose, right in the nose, and by that I don't mean I'm giving you a free nose piercing!" Jimin ignored them both in favor of checking his message, seeing exactly what he had been hoping to see.

 _Yoongi_ _: Ive got another guess so coffee? :-)_

Jimin found a smile lifting up the corners of his lips as he read the message over a few times, just to make sure that he had read it right. Coffee and a guess about his routine narrative? How could he not smile at that? But also the smiley that he had used was rather funny too, even though he wasn't sure why. As he messaged Yoongi, replying that he would be free soon and that he could totally meet him at the café again around 10am for a while, he heard his friends still fighting each other.

"Hey, when you said that he was interested in me earlier," Jimin said as he looked up from his phone, hearing the tone of the message sending. "Did you mean like, he thought the coffee was a date kind of thing?"

"Yup," Taehyung agreed with a nod as he let go of Jungkook's hair and straightened up again. "What else would it mean? Honey, have you ever asked a friend for a friend's number before?"

"…No, I ask the friend for the number directly," he replied as he looked at the screen and saw that the message had been read.

"Exactly." Jimin thought this over for a moment, finding it rather confusing to follow. Yet it seemed that Taehyung and Jungkook both knew what they were talking about, much to his befuddlement. He furrowed his brow at this and checked his screen to see that there was a reply.

 _Yoongi_ _: Afternoon classes so im good, see u there_

"OK, then guess who's got another date?" he announced as he lowered his phone. For some reason he could feel his chest swelling with excitement and his friends once again made happy noises for him. "Well, I mean I think it's a date, I dunno-"

Jimin had to stop talking because they were making that much noise, and it was likely a very good thing that there were no students in the workshop with them right now. "At 10am, so hopefully you'll be done by then."

"Uh huh, lemme just slip a few more pins in, honey, and then you're all set," Taehyung replied as he hastily moved over to carry on tucking the shirt, just the other shoulder to secure in place. "What was the first date like, huh? Tell us about it?"

"Umm…" Jimin kept his arm up high for him and he looked across the large room. "We talked about our majors for a little while, I told him I study math at college too and he said that I was smart." Taehyung made cooing sounds at this. "And he has this bike, a really cool, so I got a ride on it and-"

"A motorbike?" Jungkook asked.

"Yes, a…a _Royal Enfield Thunderbird_ uh, um, _Twin_ … _spark_ ?" Jimin said, narrowing his eyes as he tried to force the last word out right.

"Whoa, that's a baby and a half," his friend said, eyes wide in wonder. "Powerful engine; what's like riding one?"

"A little scary at first, but then really cool."

"Enough about the bike, tell me about the guy that drives the bike," Taehyung declared, fingers working quickly to hurry up with his task. "What's he like?"

"He's nice, and pretty funny," Jimin said as he lowered his head, hair falling forward over his eyes. "He says some deep things too. I think I could listen to him talk all day, and honestly, I know that sounds kind of lame but-"

"It ain't lame, it's sweet," Taehyung disagreed. "Ain't it sweet, Kookie?"

"Shit, I think I'm more excited for you then I was on my last date," Jungkook remarked with a laugh. "Yeah it's sweet, Jimin, stop worrying over it. You're gonna make yourself even more stressed out."

"OK, OK," Jimin laughed as kept his arms as still as possible for him.

It took Taehyung a few more minutes to secure the shirt in place and then help him out of it, the item going on his work table along with his cream leggings. Jimin started getting dressed back into his clothing whilst he jotted a few things down on a scrap of paper, presumably notes related to the costume.

"Before you run off," he said as he grabbed the file out their friend's hand and moved to get closer to him. "Makeup, check it over."

He popped his fingers inside and after a few seconds he pulled the paper out to wave it at him. So Jimin secured his dance leggings in place and he accepted it and held it up to study it.

Taehyung had scrawled a rather loose sketch of his face onto the sheet, not exact enough to be a portrait but close enough for him to recognize it. His friend had a rather interesting hand, had a habit of dragging limbs out to willowy long lengths, and so the portrait on the page had a rather reedy neck and large rounded face like a doll. Jimin could see the design and he eyed the focus on the eye area to see that Taehyung had applied thick lines of golden marker pen onto the heavy lids, and he had delicately rubbed white pastel up to the brow bones and along the cheeks for a highlighter effect. There were little dots along the corner and lower lid that reminded him of stars. The round cheeks were lightly blushed and the lips looked to be gradient to his eyes.

"Soft," Taehyung explained. "Soft and sweet, virginal looks." Jimin studied the hair to see that it was drawn in rather loose waves as part of the look, framing his face in a way that would mean his brow was free just like Yoongi liked. "What'd you think, huh?"

"Perfect," Jimin said as he handed him the paper back. "The concept fits perfectly, thank you."

"Don't mention it, honey," Taehyung replied with a beaming smile, clearly enjoying the praise. Jimin shrugged his tee on over his head and as he did he heard his friend moving back over to the table. "Kookie, you gave me the narrative, right? And you told me to surprise you so here it is," he said as he rifled through the file to find the right one.

"Peacocking…matadors, see where I'm going here?"

"Matadors?" Jungkook repeated as he sat up in the chair, curiosity piqued and took the paper from him

.

"You get your black basic leotard, full, I lower the neckline, right, and then I add some fabric to the top to bulk it up like a jacket," he explained as he leaned over and started poking and stroking at the page with his pencil. "It's attached to the costume not separate so, to break it up we add a red sash. Sound good so far, honey?"

"I like it, it's completely different to what I expected but it's good, like really good."

"Gonna make you up so good, listen, I know you hate the idea but you need it for the effect right?" Jungkook told him that he was listening as he studied the design intently. Jimin could see that their friend actually looked fascinated by the design, for he was behaving for once as he knotted up his dance shoes. "Eye shadow, liner, strong brows: it's all about the brows, baby. You gotta keep eye-contact so make it impossible for 'em to look away. Highlighter, that'll help draw it out and make you magnetic. Maybe, kinda…if you'll lemme, add a beauty spot?"

"What about the nails? You're not gonna make me wear that too, are you?"

"…Lemme add the beauty spot and I'll leave the nails alone," Taehyung negotiated. "Look, matadors are like princes. They put on a show, they woo women and men, it's all about the handsome looks so the makeup works. Yeah?"

"OK," Jungkook said with a nod as he held the piece of paper out to him.

"Deal."

"Oh thank fuck," Taehyung said as he accepted the paper and rolled his head back with a dramatic sigh. "I was expecting a bull fight of my own there."

"What about Hoseok?" Jimin asked, moving onto his second shoe.

"Mmm, he's gonna let me go wild ," Taehyung said with a wide grin, "and by wild, I mean black stiletto nails so Kookie, don't piss him off on performance night or you'll lose an eye. Also, I can give him a kinda batwing, kinda cape thing, still fine-tuning it but I'm getting there. Wanna see Kookie's design?"

"Surprise me with the actual piece," Jimin replied as he knotted the

second shoe and got to his feet to grab his hoodie off the table. He shrugged it on and shoved the phone into his pocket securely.

"Right, don't push yourself too hard," he said as he started crossing the room. "Eat, sleep, don't work your fingers to the bone, OK?"

"Okey dokey," Taehyung said as he gave him an 'OK' sign without looking up from the papers in front of him. "I promise."


	14. Plans?

**A/N: another veeeerryy long chapter. i just had to get this out or my brain would've exploded R and R pweeasse**

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Chapter 14

By the time that Jimin was crossing the campus to leave it was 9:45am. That was quite early for the planned 10am meet-up but he didn't really mind if he had to wait a while. After all, he had waited quite some time on the first coffee date so it was nothing really. The current weather was rather mild instead of warm and so he was actually glad that he had his hoodie on to block the slight breeze. As he passed the blossom tree he noted that the very first hints of tiny buds were starting to appear on the branches and that meant that it would start blooming soon. Jimin turned his head to study the tree and he found an idea starting to formulate in the back of his mind, an idea that involved getting take-out coffee and sitting under the bowers when it was in full bloom with Yoongi. It was enough to make him feel rather giddy as he crossed the campus to leave through the front gates. There was no sign of the other man's bike parked outside the café as he crossed the road and walked along the sidewalk.

Of course Yoongi was sitting at the window in the corner seat, already at the café. It was a sight that he had been hoping for but was still found surprising and he lifted his hand to wave just as Yoongi did, the pair of them moving in almost sync. Jimin burst out laughing and he could see that he was laughing too even though he couldn't hear him; Yoongi's mouth opening to show a flash of his teeth. So Jimin moved to push the door open and step inside, crossing the interior in his direction.

"It seems you like getting here early," he joked as he placed his hands on the back of his chair and looked at the other man.

"Neither of us have a working watch," Yoongi replied with a lazy smile as he pulled the chair out to sit down in it. Jimin folded his hands on the table top and he saw his eyes flickering down to look at them as he did. The gold was still in place in most parts, save for some slight chipping here and there. "Either that or we're both pretty impatient."

"Or a bit of both," Jimin suggested as he took a quick moment to study him. Yoongi wasn't wearing his glasses this morning but he could see that they were bulking at the front pocket of his checked shirt, which was open to show a logo tee. Though he couldn't see his lower half he assumed that he was wearing jeans for it seemed that the other man lived in them. Because his glasses weren't on his nose he could see his face more clearly; his rounded eyes and soft nose, his pouted lips. Right now Jimin really wasn't sure what Yoongi's most appealing feature was but he was more than willing to study him and try and find out.

"Uh, drinks are on me today," Yoongi said as he shifted in his chair. The movement made a loose lock of black hair shift forward and he didn't move to try and fix it. "Also, food? Maybe? You want something to eat?"

Jimin thought about what his friends had said before, about how he had to eat more food and the fact that he hadn't eaten breakfast this morning after nagging about it to Jungkook. "I was gonna order some of the kimbap they sell here anyway so…"

"If you pay for the drinks, I'll pay for the food," he offered and yet the other man shook his head as he got out of his seat and told him that it was fine, that he didn't need to. He saw that he was in fact correct, he was wearing jeans too.

"OK, how about this?" Jimin twisted to look back at him, smile playing at the corners of his lips. "We order our usual but we switch the drinks around?"

"Why'd we do that, huh?" Yoongi asked with an amused expression. He just shrugged in reply and told him that it seemed pretty funny and the other man thought this over before crossing the café to get to the counter. Jimin pulled his phone free from his pocket and he unlocked it, opening his camera, switching it to the front option. With a little angling, holding it up in front of him, he managed to get not only a good shot but also a hint of Yoongi visible in the background. Jimin lowered the phone to check it out and satisfied that it looked good he opened the KakaoTalkchatroom to send it to his three friends, receiving a sudden flood of messages in reply a minute later.

️3 _Tae_ _️ 3_ _:_ _Baby looks so good! Post on Insta and get those likes! :3_

 _Little fucker_ _:_ _craving coffee now damn_

 _Seokie_ _:_ _?whats going on here children?_

 _Little fucker_ _:_ _he's on a date! with Yoongi again! °(^o^)°_

 _Seokie_ _:_ _a date! Yoongi didnt tell me! that fucking loser!_

Yoongi brought the drinks over a minute later, placing a rather deep mug that was filled with deep brown coffee rather than his usual drink of choice. When he glanced at his cup he saw a smaller and more rounded one, filled with a nice thick layer of creamy foam. Jimin locked his phone and shoved it back into his hoodie pocket, ignoring his friends for the time being. They could gossip it out all they wanted and he would check back later to see a hundred plus messages filled with typos, caps lock and strange photographs.

"Somehow, I think you might regret this game," Yoongi remarked as he sat down in the chair and folded his arms on the table. "You're used to coffee milkshakes and Americano ain't a milkshake."

"There's a first for everything," Jimin replied with a soft smile. He could smell the strong scent of the coffee wafting on the air and he pulled the saucer closer to him just as the other man shifted to check his pocket. Presumably he had just gotten an alert. Yoongi glanced at his phone screen for a few seconds before looking up at him and Jimin saw his lips quirking up at the corners before he hit the screen a few times. Then he locked it and shoved it into his jeans pocket.

"I can't wait to see your face when you try it…" Yoongi said with a knowing smirk and so he took hold of the cup and lifted it to take a cautious sip. The liquid was scorching hot on his lips and the liquid scalded his tongue.

"Ah!" Jimin swallowed hard and felt the coffee burning his throat the entire way down as he clapped his hand over his mouth. At his contorted expression Yoongi started laughing, nursing his own cup without a care. "It's hot! It's hot, I burnt my tongue!"

He stuck his tongue out to emphasize this fact, wiggling it back and forth even though that wouldn't help it cool. Yoongi had been softly chortling a moment ago but at this he actually threw his head back with laughter.

That was the first time that Jimin had heard him really laugh and he discovered that he had a rather wheezy guffaw that suited him. "It wasn't the coffee, it was because it's so hot."

"Sure, whatever you say," Yoongi said as he lifted his coffee and took a sip of it. "Wanna trade?"

"…Yes please." So Yoongi switched the saucers around so that they could drink their actual orders with a soft smile. Jimin lifted his cup and took a sip of caffé au lait, the smooth and warm flavor on his tongue ridding him of the bitterness of the Americano. "If you drink that stuff you mustn't sleep that much…"

"I don't really sleep anyway," Yoongi replied with a heavy sigh. "The curses of taking two classes, which y'know about of course."

"Well, with the break coming up you can finally sleep, mmm?" Jimin remarked with a smile, and that was when the waitress' shadow fell over him.

"Please enjoy your order," the waitress said as she placed the plate of kimbap down onto the table. Jimin saw the way that Yoongi gave her a polite smile before turning his attention back to him.

"Plans for the break?" Yoongi asked as he picked up a piece of kimbap and popped it into his mouth, his cheek distending from the large mouthful.

"I…I don't really have any," Jimin replied as he cocked on elbow up on the table, balancing his cheek in the palm of his hand as he did. "Everyone's doing workshop things but I'm too tired from my classes to want to take on more work. I just wanna enjoy the break, you know?"

"Same here," the other man said with a nod. "I wanna take a break and everyone I know is doing work for credits."

"Did you have any plans sorted? Before the workshop got in the way?" Jimin asked as he picked up a smaller piece of kimbap and also popped it in his mouth. He tasted salmon, edamame and cream cheese and he chewed the mouthful. Yoongi thought the question over for a moment, eyeing the contents of his mug, before he opened his mouth and gave him a reply.

"I wanted to go on a quick road trip down into Gyeonggi-do and then back up to Seoul again for the week, just pass through a bunch of cities," Yoongi explained as he unwrapped one hand from his mug to start gesturing. Jimin followed the slight rolls of his wrist and twitches of his fingers as he spoke. "Try food, take photos, get drunk and maybe stoned - I dunno, just have fun. But that's not something you can do on your own, y'know?"

"I've never been to Gyeonggi-do either," Jimin said after swallowing the mouthful. "I've barely even seen Seoul even though there's so many places I wanna go and see." Yoongi studied his face for a moment before moving to grab another piece of kimbap off the plate. "But getting stoned? That's new, I didn't expect that."

"When y'know a bunch of dumb asses like Namjoonie and Seokseok y'kinda learn their dumb ass habits," he joked with a wry smile. "What, you've never tried that shit once hanging around with him?"

"I have once or twice, it's weird," Jimin said with an embarrassed laugh, feeling his gaze on him. "It sounded like a great idea though, I'm sure your friends would have really wanted to do it."

When he looked up at him again he could still see that Yoongi was looking him with that somewhat hard to read expression. "What?" he asked as he raised his eyebrows and studied him.

"I had a funny thought, was all," Yoongi mumbled as he lifted his cup and took a deep sip of the coffee. Jimin waited for him to explain with near baited breath and after a few seconds he eyed him over the rim of the mug.

"Hear me out, 'k? Hear me out before you shoot me down in flames." He confirmed that he would as he put the cup down on the saucer again. "If spring break comes around and we're both plan-less and bored outta our fucking brains, let's do it."

"Let's do…spring break? The trip?"

"Yeah, the trip," Yoongi said with a nod. "There's still a month to decide and for other things to pop up so, no pressure yeah, I was just thinking that-"

"Deal," Jimin spoke over his bumbling without hesitation. "We should totally do it, it sounds like the best kind of sporadic plan, right? Just running off during the break without much of a plan and seeing where we end up." Yoongi was staring at him wide eyed and open mouthed, the corners of his lips turned up in a rather eager fashion. "It'll be like something from a film, yes?"

"…Yeah, totally," he agreed with a nod. "Shit, Jimin, it'd be fucking amazing." Jimin couldn't help but return his grin because there was just something in the air between them both, a sort of giddiness that they had created with words alone. "If it wasn't for fucking university I'd jump on my bike right now and ask if you just wanted to go," Yoongi joked…or at least mostly joked, he wasn't certain.

"And if it wasn't for class I'd say yes," Jimin replied honestly as he wrapped his hands around his cup and studied the other man. Yoongi seemed to find it hard to hold his gaze at this, eyes flighty just like they he had been the first few times they had seen each other. He was getting better at maintaining eye-contact though, so that was something. The air fell still between them both at this and Jimin found that it wasn't uncomfortable at all but rather pleasing, yet he longed to break it regardless.

"This is my last week of full classes before they get suspended for rehearsals and project work. The night's looming and I'm nervous as fuck." Jimin let out a laugh as he reached up to brush his hand through his hair. "Which is strange because I don't usually get nervous."

"There's a lot of pressure on you right now," Yoongi said in a quiet voice. "But if you perform like you did that day I saw you, then you're gonna do fucking great. Yeah?"

"Mmm," he agreed with little enthusiasm as he eyed the cooling remains of his coffee and ran his tongue along the roof of his mouth. The bitterness of the coffee was still lingering and after a moment he managed to pluck up the courage to ask him the question playing at the back of his mind. "Yoongi…would you come and see me on performance night?"

"Performance night? Yeah sure, I'll come and see you," Yoongi said without missing a beat and Jimin saw on his face that he was being genuine with him.

"I mean, you will already be there to see Hoseok anyway, so it's not like you came to just see me but-"

"Jimin."

Yoongi pushed the plate of kimbap aside to reach over and place his hand closer to his. Jimin felt his fingertips brushing against his and the temptation to entwine them was so great that he couldn't help himself; he twitched them until he could loosely snag his very fingertips around his. Looking down at the table then, with their fingers together, Jimin realized that Yoongi's most appealing feature was his hands. It wasn't holding hands exactly but it was enough to cause a little jolt of frisson to run along his skin.

"I wanna see you too, 'k? So don't do that doubting thing you keep doing, when you try and put yourself down. You're gonna perform amazingly on the night and I'm gonna be there in the front row if I can just to watch you." Jimin looked up from their hands to hold his gaze and this time Yoongi held his eyes steady and sure, not flickering away across the café once.

"And I gotta see that routine again, in full costume, seen as you won't let me see it," he added with a slight smile as he sat back in his chair and their fingers became separate again. "Not until I get the narrative - speaking of which I can guess again?"

"Yes, you already guessed forbidden love," Jimin said as lifted his cup and drank the last of his coffee. "Try again."

"…Friends to lovers?" Yoongi suggested with narrowed eyes, his own expression showing him that he was uncertain with the guess. When he shook his head the other man rolled his eyes and made a faüx frustrated sound. "Another wasted guess!"

"It was a good attempt," he stated.

"I'm gonna have to wait for performance night to see the costume, ain't I?"

"Mmm, maybe?" he said as he grabbed another chunk of kimbap and cheeked it. "Maybe I'll be nice and send you photos of the design, or a sneak peek of it?" He started chewing the mouthful and across the table Yoongi drained the last of his coffee.

"Look, if you get it right then I'll…" Jimin paused for a few seconds, the words right on the tip of his tongue just waiting to roll off. Yoongi was looking at him eagerly, waiting for him to finish and so he took a deep breath and felt his lips twitching up at the corners. "If you get the narrative right, I'll give you a kiss."

"Shit, Jimin, you can't say that after telling me I can only guess once a day," Yoongi complained, throwing his hands up in a dramatic shrug.

"I'll give you a kiss," he repeated with a teasing smile. "I promise."

"…Can you show me the routine again?" Yoongi joked as he sat upright, arms folded on the table. His eager expression made Jimin laugh heartily. "Gimme another hint, a better hint. I suck at guessing games."

"Next week's the start of proper evening run-through," he explained.

"Come by the hall every evening and you'll get to see the routine. I'll say it one last time: if you guess the narrative right I'll give you a kiss. So, Yoongi?" The other man made a noise to let him know that he was listening.

"…Hurry up and figure it out."


	15. Selfies

Chapter 15

When Yoongi stepped into the music lab he saw that quite a lot of the computers were taken, which was of no surprise to him. Considering that some students would be working on composition pieces and digital work it made perfect sense that they would come to the lab to take advantage of free time and software. Right now he didn't require any special software at all, he just found it a hell of a lot easier to work inside the building rather than scrawl notes in the café or one of the study rooms to later type up on the room computer. No, it was much easier to work in the lab because it felt like he was in a class even though he wasn't and that meant that any free time before or during lessons could be fully utilized.

A quick glance across the lab showed some faces he vaguely recognized from his classes, mostly his ensemble classes, and one rather familiar head of bleached hair. Namjoon was sitting at a computer close to the door and he studied his profile for a moment to see that he was so immersed in listening to a piece that he hadn't even noticed that he had entered the room. As Yoongi passed him he made sure to reach out and ruffle at the back of his hair just to annoy him. It kind of worked for he felt Namjoon reaching out with his own hand to smack at his satchel bag.

He was surprised that his friend didn't break his fingers hitting it considering how packed it was with books. There was a free computer on the other side of the stretch of counter and several seats down from his friend, which was also on display to the door. Good, he liked being able to glance out at the hallway whenever he mind wandered and watch the occasional grouping of students passing by.

Yoongi hit the power button on the computer before he even sat down, hunkering forward to jab it with his thumb and then moving to hit the monitor button too. As he shrugged his satchel off to drop it at his feet the screen turned to a rather shocking bright blue color and by the time that he was sitting down in the chair the login screen had appeared. He pulled the chair in to hastily type his account name and password in and hit the enter key hard, shifting to grab his bag and pull it onto his lap. He opened it up and collected his flask of cheap instant coffee, which he placed down on the desk beside the monitor, and then he fastened it up again.

"You remember your USB this time, brother?" Namjoon asked as he twisted in his seat to look at him. He had pulled his headphones off so that they were around his neck, faded beats of music coming out of them that revealed he was listening to one of the traditional compositions for their music in context classes.

"Haha," Yoongi forced out as he slipped his hand into his bomber jacket pocket and pulled it free, flashing the device at him. It was a hunk of black plastic with a removable lid and a little flashing blue light that would flash when it was plugged in and downloading files.

"Great, you didn't bring the Kumamon one today," he added with a smirk.

"I was highly tempted," he muttered as he slipped the lid off and moved to stick it in the port beside his leg. Namjoon moved to slip his headphones back on and so Yoongi just turned his attention back to the screen in front of him, patiently waiting for the machine to load fully. It usually took a few minutes to do so and even though he was more than used to it and it still made him tap his fingers on the desk or shift in the chair in annoyance.

After waiting for the desktop load the typical boring university logo and all of the icons to pop up he grabbed hold of the mouse and wriggled it to open the USB storage and copy the files onto his account. As soon as they were done he opened both of his assignments and shifted to sit back in the chair. The first one to load was his study on the historical context of drums in traditional folk music and he eyed the first three paragraphs before the second file opened; this one an essay on the usage of live instruments for studio sessions against that of digital. Yoongi eyed the time at the bottom of the screen to see that it was 8:07am and then he rolled his eyes back up to stare at the screen.

Stupid assignments.

Yoongi looked between the two documents, trying to figure out which one to try and expand first so he could get it done. He had just under an hour before his classes would start and yet he had wasted five minutes already logging onto the computer, opening the files from his USB and staring at the screen. Every now and again he might move in the chair, shifting so that the leather creaked as the mechanism squeaked ever so slightly. But he had yet to start typing.

The creative industries piece was calling to him, almost demanding that he get it over with because it was the hardest one. At least when he was on campus he could work on it with less distractions, distractions in the form of Namjoon. His friend was sitting across the lab right now, headphones on and fingers moving at the speed of light across the keyboard. Yoongi wished that his fingers would do that, that he would hover them over the keys and suddenly it would just hit him and the words would start flowing.

Maybe he was just resting his fingers because of his performance class later?

"Pfft, great excuse," Yoongi snorted as he collected his flask off the desk and unscrewed it. The scent of acid-strong coffee came from it and he took a sip. It was incredibly strong, barely anything more than a splash of milk added to it and no sugar at all, and he was in the act of screwing the lid back on when his phone vibrated in his bomber jacket.

He moved to place it on the desk again and reached inside his pocket to pull it free, checking the screen to see that he had a message. It was from Jimin of course and he saw that he had just sent him a photograph.

Yoongi eyed the screen for a moment before shifting his gaze to look at his computer screen. In front of him he still had Word open, the black line flashing as it waited for him to start typing again. Which he would do in a minute of course, after he had checked something important out. The file could wait, and in fact he even reached over to hit the keyboard shortcut and save his progress just to be sure he wouldn't regret getting distracted. Satisfied that it had saved Yoongi shifted to sit back in his chair and he slid his thumb across the screen to unlock his phone and check the message.

Jimin had sent him quite a few photographs over the last half a week though they weren't always of himself. Oftentimes they varied from shots of the campus because Jimin was letting him know that he was going to be busy for a few hours, to the occasional shot of food or drinks. One time he had sent him a snap of his bike with a message about being incredibly tempted to sit on the back (but he made sure to specify that he hadn't). He probably didn't have a clue that he had already had photograph of him saved on his phone courtesy of Hoseok for quite some time now. His friend had downloaded one that had been sent on his chat room with the other students and had sent it to him a mere minute later: a photograph of Jimin sitting in the campus café, phone angled to catch a glimpse of his black hair in the background and a rather pleased grin on his face. Jimin hadn't sent him any photographs of him smiling just yet but he always had that one saved. Yoongi thought that he looked his most beautiful when he was smiling but so far he had just gotten shots of his eyes and his blocked lower face - usually sent with a message about him looking bad that day, or with his hood up so that he could see just hints of his eyes peeking out mischievously, but there had been one or two full face shots that showed him unsmiling or pouting playfully right at the camera because he was apparently bored.

Jimin had sent him a photograph of him in one of the practice rooms, camera in hand held out in front of him so he could take a shot using the practice mirror. Yoongi could see that he was in his usual outfit, the dance practice leggings and a deep grey tee that hanged on his frame like always. He had his head cocked slightly so that the phone didn't obscure his face, and Yoongi could see a soft smile at the corners of his lips. In the very corner of the frame he could just make out a shock of black hair, which could have belonged to either Hoseok or that Jungkook kid. He wasn't really sure but it didn't really matter when the main and only focus was on Jimin. Yoongi was amazed that even wearing something casual like that Jimin looked stunning. He had sent a brief message under the photo too.

 _Jiminie_ _: First night tonight, nervous ( - )_

Yoongi smiled at the message before doing the usual, holding his thumb down on the screen and saving the photograph. Then he quickly sent him a message in return telling him to not worry about it. After all, it was just the overall run-through, it wasn't like he was going to actually perform tonight. He hesitated over adding a small after note about him looking very nice but decided to not be too forward and instead he put the phone down and moved to close the traditional drum music study document in favor of the studio recording essay. He had just finished reading the work he had done already as a recap when his phone screen lit up again with a hard vibrating buzz, so he picked it up and unlocked it without much more than a quick glance as his thumb entered the pass code.

 _Jiminie_ _: Are u busy? U should send one too (=u=)_

Yoongi read the message and he felt a dreaded wave wash over him, a wave of realization that he was most certainly not looking presentable enough to take a photograph of himself right now. He hadn't even bothered that much with his appearance at all, instead planning on going back to the accommodation block to grab something to eat and change before the run-through because there was two hours between his final class and the start of the rehearsals. Right now he was sitting at the lab computer in a black bomber and a wrinkled tee and his bike helmet had made his hair a bird's nest of tangles around his head.

He didn't have to send one but it was the polite thing to do seen as Jimin kept sending him photographs.

Yoongi sighed heavily and moved to look around the computer monitor at his friend. Namjoon was much too busy working to even look at him and so he shifted to slide down in his chair ever so slightly to hide behind the monitor. He opened his camera and switched it to the front one, taking moment to fix his hair even though it was rather pointless because it would never settle in place. He tried holding the camera low so that the other students wouldn't look over and assume that he was taking a photograph of himself, but the angle was all wrong and he looked weird. After a few seconds he sighed and held the phone up a little higher to get a better angle.

Jimin had probably held the phone up and took one quick snap without much thought or effort at all, and yet he was struggling to get a single one that he felt was even close to decent. Should he smile? Or was that weird? Should he look at the camera or maybe look away? Why was this so hard? He sent embarrassing photographs of himself on the chat room all the of the time but he wasn't conscious of his appearance when he did, seen as he wasn't trying to impress his friends. Maybe an embarrassing photograph would be a good idea because he would make him laugh?

Yoongi had to resist the urge to mumble under his breath as he held the camera up that little more. He reached up to fix the front of his tee so that it wasn't as wrinkled and pull the jacket open a little more and then he attempted to fluff his hair to life with a hard ruffle of his fingers.

Yoongi was in the act of considering a pout when he felt eyes on him and he turned his head to look and see that there was a student was looking at him through the open doorway of the lab; the redhead that he knew was called Taehyung though he had yet to be introduced to him yet. It was impossible to mistake his crimson hair and paint splattered pullover, but also his rather unique and handsome face. Yoongi held his gaze for a few seconds to see if he was going to enter the room or if he was going to say something. It looked like he was, for there was something on his expression that said he was planning on speaking to him, and after a moment he did.

"Try your other side," Taehyung suggested as he gestured up at his face. "Much better, yeah?"

Yoongi saw him wave a perfectly manicured hot pink nail around his face and then he lowered his hand again with a slightly boxy grin. "Maybe fix your hair a little too, honey, or not. He might like messy hair, just saying."

Before Yoongi could even attempt to open his mouth the young man popped out of the doorway again and left him still there, mouth hanging open. He stared at the spot that he had been occupying for a moment and then he turned to stare at his computer monitor dumbly. It took him even more seconds to figure out that he had called him 'honey' too and he could barely believe it. He had said maybe a dozen words to the other student whilst trying to fix his busted up computer that time, and he had just called him 'honey'. Yoongi looked away from the computer and he saw that Namjoon was looking at him too, phone in hand as he took a shot of him sitting there staring like a loser.

"Don't post that on the chat," Yoongi intoned as his friend lowered his phone with a wide smirk, a dimple in the corner of his mouth showing that he was pleased with himself. "I'm serious."

Yoongi sighed again before attempting to get a photograph of himself just so he could get it over with it and concentrate on his work. He settled for a slight smile that he hoped didn't look awkward and then snapped a shot of his monitor too so he could send them as a pairing, drawing attention away from his face alone.

He had only just finished sending them when a banner popped up on the top of his screen alerting him to the fact that Namjoon had just sent a photo file in their chat room, quickly followed with a message.

 _Joonie_ _:_ _look this gay nerd._

Yoongi moved to lean around his monitor and Namjoon was still smirking in that obnoxious way of his.

"Literally fuck you," he hissed at him as he sat back down in his chair, the leather creaking as he did. "I'll get you back."

Yoongi sat there awkwardly waiting for his screen to light up with a new message alert because he was much too distracted to possibly concentrate on his work now. He was holding Namjoon responsible for any future drop in his average for his classes from this point onward because it seemed fitting. After a minute or two of mindless fiddling his phone finally sounded and freed him from that annoying feeling of apprehension so he unlocked his phone and checked it to see.

 _Jiminie_ _: Ah u were busy! Sorry!_

 _Jiminie_ _: Also cute! (≥u≤)_

"…Cute?" Yoongi said under his breath before letting out a soft laugh. Cute, well that was unexpected but it was enough to bring a smile to his face as he quickly sent him a message to tell him that it was fine. Then he put the device down and turned back to his screen so that he could start working on the essay, no longer distracted. He had wasted ten minutes of his free hour but that didn't really matter to him as he slipped his headphones in place, loading up the latest playlist that Hoseok had created so that he could settle down and work.

Over the duration of the next forty minutes he didn't get any more messages from Jimin, meaning that he had either decided to wait and not disturb him or that he himself was busy too. He did see a dozen or so message alerts on the chat room though, between his three friends as they made jokes about him presumably. When he was on his way to his first class he was going to check and if it was the case then Namjoon really was dead. As a result of the lack of distractions he actually managed to get a decent amount of work on the essay done. It wasn't the full seven-hundred-and-fifty allowance but it was good enough and he thought that getting five-hundred or so done in that time was pretty good, especially including the fact that he had managed to slip a couple of references in it too. He might just be able to finish this assignment in another attempt and that was something to be proud of. Yoongi wrapped up his work five minutes ahead of his first class, making sure to copy his files onto his USB so that he could, and he saw Namjoon copying his actions across the counter.

"Before you destroy me," his friend said as he waited for him in the doorway, "you've gotta check the chat, OK?" Yoongi shoved his textbook back into his satchel along with the flask of coffee and then he grabbed his phone off the desk and followed his friend out of the lab. As they were walking down the short hallway to exit the building he unlocked his phone and loaded the chat room. The first thing to load was the photograph of him of course, staring rather stupidly at his computer with his phone still held up in front of him, and then a series of back and forth messages between Namjoon and Seokjin joking about how they could make candid shots of him a regular appearance on the chat room, but at some point Hoseok made a brief appearance to drop his own witty remark.

 _Seokseok_ _: got my own gay loser 2_

This message was followed by a photograph of Jimin sitting cross-legged on the floor on the practice room, phone in hand and a happy little grin on his face. Yoongi looked up to see that Namjoon was holding the door open for him so he stepped out first, squinting at the sudden appearance of proper sunlight and not glowing artificial computer screens. He hit the screen with his thumb to load the image fully, saving it without much thought before closing the app again and shoving his phone into his number pocket.

"You still pissed at me, huh?" Namjoon asked as he stepped out after him and they crossed the campus path in the direction of the other building.

"I'll let you off with a caution," Yoongi retorted as he shrugged his satchel up higher on his shoulder. "But do it again and you'll regret it."

The day seemed to drag just, as the busy Mondays always seemed to do so. It seemed to be his busiest day in terms of classes but he was starting to get used to the drag by now. Performance class was the same as always and Yoongi struggled to get through the whole thing without sighing loudly under his breath, going over compositions that he already knew off by heart from high school piano lessons. At least after the break he would be given the chance to start learning another instrument and he supposed that that would be great…if he had a clue what the hell to pick.

After seeing Namjoon struggle with drums he was a little uncertain, but he would make sure to pick a traditional one instead of the modern if he settled on that. At least in music in context they briefly covered something related to the study and he made sure to jot down everything and scribble circles around it to make sure he couldn't miss it when it came to working on the study.


	16. Screenshots

Chapter 16

When it came to his rather rushed lunch break he made sure to message Jimin and check up on him because he had heard Hoseok complaining about how he hadn't been eating that well of late through stress. Yoongi hadn't exactly been on top of a healthy diet either but he had Namjoon easily ploughed through three shared bowls of Shin ramyun in the convenience store, sitting at the window counter. He got a message back after several minutes about Jimin being a little too busy to take a break but that he would soon. Well, he was with at least one of their friends so Yoongi guessed that they would make sure that he took a break. As soon as they were finished with the food they had to head back to campus for the next slew of ensemble and digital classes.

Eventually his classes were done for the day and Yoongi could hardly wait to leave, having spent the best part of eight hours on campus working with just a small lunch break. Before he could do that he needed a cigarette and so when he left the front gates he made sure to slip the packet free and shove a stick between his lips. He put the packet away and patted at his clothing until he located the lighter in his left bomber jacket pocket and so he pulled it free. He was about to light up on the curb when he saw Hoseok on the other side of the road, coming out of the store with a bag. So Yoongi paused in the act of doing so to wave his hand and catch his attention, not that it was really that hard to miss him skulking right by the gates.

"Taking a break?" he called around the cigarette stick with a grin as his friend crossed the road in his direction. Hoseok replied that he was, his expression rather grim. He looked pretty tired right now and Yoongi wouldn't be surprised if he was, seen as everyone seemed to be tired these days. "How's it going, huh?"

"I can't wait for this to just hurry up and end," Hoseok groaned as he reached back and placed a hand on his lower back. "Three constant weeks of this shit so far and still the rest of this week until performance night. But hey, we're nearly there. Costumes are pretty much in the basic stages and Tae's adding the details and shit over the next few days so that'll be done too. It's getting there slowly."

"Costume? What're you going as, huh?"

"Think of a more stylish batman," Hoseok retorted without missing a beat, and the mental images were enough to make him snort laughter as he sparked the light and held the flame against the end of the stick. "After performance night we've got a couple of weeks to finish project work and then it's the break."

"Yeah, 'cept you're not taking a break," Yoongi argued as he breathed the smoke out of his nose.

"Oh yeah, shit, actually I don't just have project work I have to go over stuff for that too," Hoseok moved to rifle through the store bag and then he pulled a Melona bar free, tearing the corner with his teeth and popping the ice cream out. Yoongi saw that it was the light green one, which meant it was melon. "But that's nothing, we're just teaching kids shit for a couple of days and then having a small recital or whatever, it'll be fun. Kids are cute."

"Kids are annoying, old people are cuter," Yoongi said as he pulled the cigarette free and dabbed ash off the end.

"Sure, you're really cute," Hoseok said as he sucked on the end of the bar and then took a bite. "You figured out what to do in the break yet?"

Yoongi stopped with the cigarette hovering in front of his lips as he rolled his gaze to look at his friend. Hoseok was looking at him whilst he chewed away at his ice cream, and he wondered if he should tell him about what had happened in the café between him and Jimin. If he should tell him about the promise that Jimin had made about going on the quick road trip with him or whether he should maybe keep it a secret. Just in case Jimin actually couldn't go with him, or he didn't want to. After a moment of silence he decided to reply.

"I mentioned something to Jimin," Yoongi explained as he watched a car rolling down the road in front of them. "Something about going to Gyeonggi-do on my bike."

"Oh yeah?" Hoseok asked, his eyes widening to a rather comical size as he stared at him, a slight smear of ice cream on his lower lip from the bar. "What did he say?"

"He said yeah," he replied. "He might change his mind of course, there's still over a month for something to happen but-"

"Nope, he won't cancel on you," Hoseok replied with a head shake. "Jimin's been wanting to do something forever but everyone signed up to

the workshop and left him hanging. He's been wanting to see Seoul and pretty much everywhere else, so I think he's definitely gonna go with you. Are you hanging around hoping to see him or something?"

"Nah, I'm heading back to the block to grab some food and change and then come back. I promised to come and see him on the buildup to the night," Yoongi explained as he dabbed more ash off the end of his cigarette. "But shit, Seokseok, I didn't realize how much work I've gotta do and I'm losing a good couple of hours doing so. I dunno how I'm gonna get 'em back unless I stop taking breaks and spend my entire Sunday working."

"What kinda work?" Hoseok asked him, chewing a chunk of the Melona bar slowly. "Technical work or like…documents?"

"Document work, a lot of stupid assignments and worksheets that are starting to pile up before the break," Yoongi muttered as he reached up to rub at his tired eyes. "Not hard, just time-consuming, yeah?"

"Take your phone with you," Hoseok suggested. "Download an app, make notes for different ones during the run-through on it until he's performing. That way you can get a little work done during the interim and get to watch him."

He took another bite and cheeked it, seemingly not at all bothered by the cold. "You could make essay plans and everything, that would cut down on time."

"…Shit, Seokseok, that's actually genius," Yoongi said after a moment of thought.

"I make notes for my project work on my phone all the time," Hoseok explained as he sucked the mouthful of creamy melon ice cream against his cheek.

"Especially with rehearsals, I can be stuck on campus for a couple of hours and it's pretty draining to just sit there and watch the same things over and over." His friend shifted to lean against the gates beside him, using the metal railings as support. "I can't believe that I'll be spending my break working hard and you'll be running off with Jimin on some kinda road trip-cum-honeymoon."

"Uh, Seokseok, he is…y'know, is he gay? Or something?" Yoongi asked in a quiet voice as he leaned closer to him, cheek almost brushing against his shoulder.

"Gee I don't know, Yoongi, I can't believe it never once crossed my mind this whole time to turn to Jimin during class and ask him a really personal question in front of like a dozen other students."

"Hey, Jimin, are you gay or something?"" Hoseok turned to look at him, face and voice dripping with sarcasm. Yoongi would have laughed had he not been so serious with his question. "Why would I even do that? Like, what's the possible context for a question like that?"

"I dunno, saying something like "oh, d'you have a girlfriend?" and if he says no, ask "what about a boyfriend?" he suggested, trying to get his friend off his ass. "I've never done anything like that before, the fuck should I know?"

"Me neither," Hoseok argued. "You do know if I ask him stuff like that it looks like I'm interested in him, yeah? And I gotta say, sure he's pretty cute but-"

His friend stopped talking at the look that he was giving him, letting out a quick laugh, "Yoongi, that was a joke. You don't want me sniffing around looking interested in case he gets the wrong ideas. What was it you said that day, when the system was busted? How old am I? How old are you?"

"Old enough to have an interest in a guy and yet too young to have the guts to tell him," Yoongi retorted expertly.

"Look, you weren't in middle school with me but Namjoonie was and he can testify. We used to have a friend, and he used to kinda flirt and act all cutesy with me. Just like what Jimin's doing to me right now. But I read it all wrong and ended up getting punched in the mouth and being forced to move schools 'cos of that shit. I got in so much fucking trouble, and I don't really wanna go through something like that again. 'K?"

"…Tell me what he's been like," Hoseok said after a moment of thought, ice cream bar hovering in front of his mouth. "Jimin, like what's he been like?"

"Why?"

"Just tell me," his friend repeated as he looked back across the road. Yoongi got a sense off his friend that told him that he knew something and he wasn't telling him what, judging from his rather flighty eyes.

"I dunno, he's been really nice," Yoongi replied as he reached up to mess with his hair with his free hand. "Sometimes I'm pretty sure that he's flirting with me but then sometimes I can't tell if it's that or if he's just being friendly. He started this thing, uh, this game. If I can guess his dance narrative then I get a kiss."

"He said that he'd kiss you?" Hoseok repeated back at him, and Yoongi nodded rather than reply as he took a drag on the cigarette. "Then…shit, Yoongi, what're you asking all of those questions for?"

"'Cos I'm-"

"Yeah, 'cos you're scared you're reading it all wrong and yadda yadda – listen," Hoseok moved to grab hold of his head tightly, heels of his hands digging into his cheeks. Yoongi breathed the smoke of his nose in surprise but his friend didn't seem to mind. "I think you're reading this right."

"You…y'think?"

"Listen, between you running around calling your coffee hookups dates and him running around talking about you constantly, I'm going a little nuts," Hoseok said as he let go of his head.

He pulled his phone free from his pocket and he unlocked it with his thumb, hitting the screen a few times as he presumably loaded an app or opened something on the device.

Yoongi just watched him do so curiously, cigarette held between his teeth as a dab of ash grew longer and longer.

"Chatroom: me, Jimin, Jungkookie, Taehyung," Hoseok explained as he studied the screenshot of messages. "Look at that and tell me you're reading it wrong."

 _3 Tae 3_ _: Cute concept: Jimjim stops talking about Yoongi for five seconds so I can practice his makeup without stabbing him in the eye!_

* * *

 _Little Fucker_ _: but did u stab him in the eye tho?_

* * *

 _3 Tae 3_ _: unfortunately yeah_

* * *

 _Little Fucker_ _: lol_

* * *

 _3 Tae 3_ _: He's crying stop laughing_

* * *

"There's more, scroll along," his friend said and Yoongi looked up from the screen to see that his friend was looking across the road, the remains of his snack currently being ignored. So he swiped his thumb along the screen to check the next saved image.

* * *

 _MinMin_ _: Should I ask Yoongi to go somewhere other than the café?_

* * *

 _MinMin_ _: Like I dunno maybe somewhere like SMA?_

* * *

 _MinMin_ _: Seokie, does he like art?_

* * *

 _Little Fucker_ _: Just go 4 it_

* * *

 _MinMin_ _: Ohhhh I dunno he's busy maybe I should wait_

* * *

 _Seokie_ _: Hurry up and ask him or imma do it_

* * *

 _Seokie_ _: Also ya he likes art take him to the gallery or else_

* * *

 _MinMin_ _: (0-0) or else what?_

* * *

 _Seokie_ _: :))))))_

* * *

Yoongi started gnawing on his lip as he swiped across the screen again, just knowing that there was another screenshot coming for him to see. There was a horrible swirling ball of anxiety in the pit of his stomach and he could feel his fingers rolling up into a fist inside his bomber jacket pocket. Seeing the messages should have brought him a sense of excitement and relief, but instead he felt rather uncomfortable. It might have been because he was looking at messages not intended for his eyes, or it might have been something else. Something like the dawning realization that he was going to have to be the one to make a move.

* * *

 _3 Tae 3_ _:_ I cant understand u jimin ur typing nonsense literally

* * *

 _3 Tae 3_ _: r u ok?_

* * *

 _MinMin_ _: im kinda drunk right no so its the booz tlking but i kinda look him nd i got a tell him bjt i cant do that fuvk_

* * *

 _MinMin_ _: *Like_

* * *

 _MinMin_ _: What m supposed to do say hsy yoonk i yhink I like u?_

* * *

 _3 Tae 3_ _: calm down honey im damn sure he likes u back_

* * *

 _MinMin_ _: Shit km gun slep im crying im not ok_

* * *

Yoongi swiped the screen again and the next image wasn't a screenshot but was rather a photograph of one of Taehyung's designs, his hand visible in the corner of the shot. So he held the device back out to his friend, eyes glued to the pavement because he didn't want to look up at him right now. Hoseok took the phone off him and he locked it again, shoving it into his sweatshirt pocket.

Yoongi stared at the crushed butt of the cigarette by his boot in silence, listening to the soft drone of the traffic passing them by, and after a minute or so of quiet his friend broke it.

"I didn't want to show you those messages, I was hoping one of you would've done something by now…but you needed a push in the right direction. Well, more of a shove actually."

Yoongi couldn't seem to look up at him because the act of lifting his head was too hard. It required a great effort to do so and so he just moved his eyes from the cigarette butt to his boot in turn. He could heard Hoseok scuffing his sneakers on the paving flag and he realized that he was trying to add something but he lacked the coherency to do so.

Jimin had sent those messages, those messages about wanting to ask him out on dates but being too frightened to do. He had spoken about him so often that there was a running joke between his friends about this fact, and he had sent an emotional barrage at Hoseok in the middle of the early morning hours that had resulted in tears. All because of him. At any point over the last three weeks Jimin could have sent him a message asking him on a date but he had went to their friends for advice instead.

Over that duration he could have done something too but he hadn't, even with his sudden bursts of cockiness and jokes to his friends. Yoongi didn't really know why he hadn't done something when he had wanted to so bad and now he was starting to see the results of his dilly-dallying.

"Look you've got a shot at this, Yoongi," Hoseok explained as he reached up to start tugging at his headband. "You've got a shot at something good, something really fucking good, and you just need to go for it. OK? Just do it or I swear to god, Yoongi, I will fucking kick your shitty ass."

"…I'll do it," Yoongi said in a quiet voice as he reached up to ruffle the back of his hair roughly. "I'll say something tonight, after the run-through. Alright?"

"Honestly, all of this drama," Hoseok sighed heavily as he rolled his eyes. "You both should have majored in acting instead."


End file.
